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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



KLONDIKE 



AND 
THE 

YUKON 

COUNTRY 

WITH 

MAPS 

AND 

PHOTO 

GRAPHIC 

ILLUSTRA 

TIONS 




By L. A, COOLIDGE, 

with a chapter by 

JOHN R PRATT, Chief of 

Alaskan Bv::mdary Expedition 

of J 894 



Price 50 Cents 



Philadelphia 
HENRY ALTEMUS 



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KLONDIKE 

AND THE YUKON COUNTRY 

A DESCRIPTION OF OUR 

ALASKAN LAND OF GOLD 

FROM THB IvATFST OFFICIAI, AND SCIENTIFIC SOURCES 
AND PERSONAL OBSERVATION 



L. A. COOLIDGE 

With a Chapter by JOHN F. PRATT 

CHIEF OF THE AI^ASKAN BOUNDARY EXPEDITION OF 1894 
NEW MAPS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRA 7 IONS 



PHILADELPHIA Ll 

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Copyrighted by Henry Aliemus, of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, A. D. iSgy, in the One Hundred and Twenty-first Year of 
the Independence of the United States of America. 




Henry Altemus, Manufacturer, 
philadelphia. 



/-/59i 



INTRODUCTION 

The object of this book is to furnish the latest 
authentic information concerning a portion of 
our country which until very recently has been lit- 
tle thought of; but which is now the magnet for 
many minds. The author wishes to acknowledge 
his indebtedness to officers of the U. S. Coast 
and Geodetic Survey, and the U. S. Geological 
Survey for helpful suggestions and for recitals of 
personal experience. He is especially under 
obligation to Mr. John F. Pratt, of the Coast 
and Geodetic Survey, whose service as Chief of 
the Alaskan Boundary Expedition of 1894 gives 
a peculiar interest and value to the chapter 
kindly contributed by him. 



CONTENTS. 



New Lands of Gold 7 

Klondike and Yukon Diggings 22 

Seeking the Pot of Gold 37 

Life in Camp 6^ 

Mining Experts and Scientists 78 

Placer Mining and Hydraulics 94 

Alaska no 

Quartz Mining in Southeastern Alaska . . . .132 

The Wonderful Yukon Country 144 

The Boundary Dispute 175 

Gold Production of the World 1S2 

Our Northwestern Possessions, 185 

Laws Governing the Location of Claims . . .194 
Climate of Alaska ..,.„. 208 

3 



Klondike: 



CHAPTER I. 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 

On Wednesday, July '14th, 1897, the little 
steamer Excelsior arrived in the harbor of San 
Francisco with forty miners on board, each one 
of whom had brought with him from the ice- 
bound interior of Alaska a fortune in gold. From 
that day may be said to date the Klondike gold 
craze which already rivals in extent the three 
other great gold crazes of the century, California 
in 1849, Australia in 1851 and South Africa in 
1890. Already the amount known to have been 
brought back by the returning miners exceeds 
$1,000,000, and nearly $3,000,000 more is said to 
be on the way. It is estimated by some experts 
that before the full returns come in it will be 

7 



8 KLONDIKE. 

found the total output of the Alaskan mines has 
been $8,000,000. California yielded $60,000,000 
five years after Marshall's discovery, and all from 
place diggings, as are the diggings in the Klon- 
dike region; but the facilities for mining in Cali- 
fornia, with its salubrious climate, its compara- 
tive nearness to civilization, its all-year-round 
conveniences, were infinitely superior to the fa- 
cilities in the Yukon Basin, where winter lasts 
for ten months in the year, and where the ther- 
mometer drops to y2 degrees below zero in the 
winter and climbs to 120 degrees above zero in 
the summer, and where the nearness of the Arctic 
circle practically divides the year into one long 
day and one long night, each extending over a 
period of six months. 

When millions of gold can be taken out in a 
single year under all these disadvantages of cli- 
mate by laborers working with the most primi- 
tive implements of mining life it is difficult to 
conceive of the opulence of a soil whose grudging 
tribute to the energy of the modern argonaut is 
so fabulous in extent. 

These forty men who came down on the Ex- 
celsior from the port of St Michael, near the 
mouth of the Yukon, had amxong them over half 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 9 

a million dollars in gold dust, ranging in size 
from a hazel nut to fine bird shot and kernels 
of sand. All of them were penniless, or nearly 
so, when they left the United States, some of 
them having taken their departure within a year, 
others having been prospecting on the fields 
alongthe branches of the Upper Yukon for several 
years. They brought back fortunes ranging from 
^5000 to $90,000 and the most extraordinary tales 
of their experience in the mining countries. Their 
descriptions of the vast amounts of gold still re- 
maining in the regions from which they had 
come were so tempered with cautions and warn- 
ings against a mad rush for the new fields that 
tales which otherwise might have been deemed 
improbable gained credence through their very 
conservatism. But whatever might be thought 
of the tales, there was no disputing the tangible 
fact of the yellow metal which was laid down in 
Selby's smelting works at San Francisco, and 
when a second ship, the Portland, from St. Mi- 
chael, arrived at Seattle, three days later, with 
more miners aboard and $700,000 in bullion, it 
was as if a spark had set afire the enthusiasm for 
hunting gold which had been lying dormant 
since the days of the Argonauts of 1849. There 



10 KLONDIKE. 

have been few scenes in mining history more 
striking than that which was enacted when the 
men landed from the Ebccelsior, weather beaten, 
roughly dressed, with scraggly beards and fur- 
rowed cheeks, and marching straight to the 
smelting works, proceeded to produce bags of 
gold, dirty and worn, containing thousands of 
dollars in the precious metal. 

As fast as the bags were weighed they were 
ripped open with a knife and the contents were 
allowed to scatter over the counter; and then 
some of the miners produced from bundles and 
coat pockets gold dust in all sorts of queer re- 
ceptacles, such as fruit jars and jelly tumblers, 
and even writing paper, carefully secured with 
twine. No wonder the spectotors looked on with 
fascinated amazement. No wonder the strange 
news spread like wildfire. The gold fever of 1897 
had begun to burn. 

These miners brought the news that the new 
Eldoradc was situated on the Klondike River, 
nearly two thousand miles from the mouth of 
the Yukon, just escaping the Arctic circle by a 
bare 250 miles, and situated in Canadian terri- 
tory, a meagre 140 miles east of the 141st degree 
of longitude, which constitutes the boundary be- 
tween Alaska and British America. 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 11 

They told, too, of the terrible hardship 
through which they had gone in order to reach 
these marvelous gold fields and uncover their 
hidden wealth. Joseph Ladue, who left Platts- 
burg, N. Y., a few years ago, an impecunious 
farm hand, too poor to marry the woman of his 
choice, described how he had forced his way 
into the new diggings, established the city of 
Dawson, which is the metropolis of the gold re- 
gion, and come back with thousands of dollars 
in hand and millions in prospect. But his most 
emphatic words were words of warning against 
those who would rush madly to the new field 
without considering the hardships they would 
have to undergo. Starvation and want, he said, 
would be the lot of those who ventured into the 
new Eldorado without a supply of provisions 
sufficient to last for months, and he said that 
those who ventured to leave for the North as 
late as August i were wasting their time, be- 
sides subjecting themselves to needless peril, for 
by the time tney had traversed the long stretch 
of inhospitable country they would find winter 
setting in with Arctic vigor and they would be 
shut up in an ice-bound region hundreds of miles 
from telegraph or postoffice, a prey to starva- 
tion and cold. 



12 KLONDIKE. 

Dawson City, which had sprung up in an Arc- 
tic night, was situated, they said, near the junc- 
tion of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers, had a 
population when the miners left of 3,500, was 
laid out on modern lines with sixty-foot avenues 
and fifty-foot streets and had all the ambitious 
scope of a bonanza town with a few score log 
cabins and innumerable tents. 

While the voyagers on the Excelsior were still 
telling their marvelous stories in San Francisco 
fuel was added to the fire by the arrival at Seattle 
of the steamer Portland, also straight from St. 
Michael, with sixty miners aboard and over 
$700,000 in gold. The excitement aroused by 
the arrival of the Portland surpassed even that 
of the earlier arrival, and it had hardly touched 
the wharf before hundreds of men in Seattle 
were crowding over one another to get an op- 
portunity to board her for her return trip to the 
mouth of the Yukon. 

These miners had been hunting for gold in 
the Yukon country for years. Some of them 
had found it in generous quantities lying in the 
streams and in the beds of creeks flowing into 
the Yukon just west of the spot where the river 
crosses the boundary between Alaska and Brit- 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 13 

ish America — along Forty-mile Creek, Sixty- 
mile Creek and Birch Creek. They would have 
continued digging along these creeks for months 
longer content with the moderate but certain re- 
turns of their labors had it not been for the sud- 
den discovery on the Klondike pouring into the 
Yukon over on the British side, of gold nug- 
gets so large and handily found that, carried 
away with the news, they pulled up stakes and 
abandoned in a day the claims upon which they 
had been toiling for months. Circle City, the 
largest camp in the Yukon district, was desert- 
ed over night, and Dawson City, at the junction 
of the Klondike and the Yukon, sprang into be- 
ing in a day. This was a year ago, at the be- 
ginning of the short summer season. The gold 
the returning miners brought to San Francisco 
and Seattle was the product of that summer's 
pickings. They worked the Klondike and the 
banks of two creeks flowing into it, which they 
called appropriately the Eldorado and the Bo- 
nanza, until winter shut in on them, and for nine 
months of the cheerless Arctic season they lay 
huddled over their gold, until the breaking up 
of the ice in the following June gave them their 
first chance to escape back home with their 



14 KLONDIKE. 

treasure. They had been shut out from the 
world for nine months as completely as if they 
had been dead. They did not even know the 
result of the election for President. They were 
strangers in their own country. 

The Portus B. Weare is a little steamer, own- 
ed by a transportation company, which makes 
the trip up and down the Yukon three or four 
times every summer, and on this boat the miners 
loaded their gold and left their fortune-banks 
behind. They steamed 2000 miles down the 
river to the diminutive port of St. Michael, on 
the coast of Behring Sea, there to take passage 
on steamers bound for home. 

St. Michael is situated on an island ninety 
miles north of the mouth of the Yukon. It is 
the most important station of the coast for all 
the Yukon region, and, in fact, the only one so 
far as freight and supplies are concerned. On 
June 2^, at noon, the Portus B. Weare, the first 
passenger steamer to arrive from up the river, 
came steaming around the low headland and 
drowned the frantic cheering of the crowds on 
the two boats lying there with its hoarse whistle. 
The Portland and Excelsior, drawing in excess 
of nineteen feet of water, were obliged to lie out 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 15 

a mile or more from shore, but the Weare, built 
for river traffic and drawing only a few feet, was 
enabled to steam up the shallow harbor and 
touch the dock. As she steamed near, friends 
who had not met in months or years greeted one 
another from deck to deck, and wives and chil- 
dren who had come to meet fathers and hus- 
bands, frantically threw kisses and wept and 
laughed by turns. A more exciting throng was 
never seen. 

That the Weare brought good news was evi- 
dent. Husbands, fathers and friends held up 
nuggets of glittering gold and bags of it before 
the eyes of those aboard the Portland, and the 
news was shouted across that a great strike had 
been made. "Circle City is busted!" "Only 
three white men left in it!" "The Klondike is 
the richest mining region on earth to-day!" 
"Hurrah for the new proposition!" "Circle City 
is the silent city!" These and kindred shouts 
rent the air. There was as great desire on the 
Portland to hear the news from up the river as 
there had been at St. Michael to hear from 
the outer world. 

Those who were first to board the boat soon 
heard enough to convince them that on the El- 



16 KLONDIKE. 

dorado and Bonanza Cheeks, branches of the 
Klondike, the richest strike in all American min- 
ing history, had been made. All the people knew 
was that gold had been found in such quantities 
that it seemed beyond belief; that all who went 
into the streams mentioned found gold, and that 
most of them or their partners were coming out 
and had gold to show. The Weare brought down 
on her first trip over $1,000,000 . Many of the 
men would not talk, but, with grips, bags, strong 
boxes, belts, tin tomato cans and other odd re- 
ceptacles filled with the glittering metal, sat on 
guard in their 4x6 staterooms. 

The purser was treasurer of the smaller hold- 
ers. For Stanley and Worden he had $20,000; 
R. McNulty, $20,000; Henry Anderson, $20,000; 
C. D. Myers, $6000; T. Moran, $13,000; Joe Coz- 
lies, $17,000; N. E. Pickett, $20,000; Victor Lord, 
$3500; C. A. Brannon, $7000; Albert Gray, 
$6000; N. Murcer, $15,000; John R. Moffett, 
$9000; C. H. Loveland, $8500^ J. J. Hatterman, 
$12,500. Other men had sums far in excess of 
these, and, while some of them had given the pur- 
ser from $5000 to $20,000 each to keep for them, 
retaining from $30,000 to $100,000 themselves, 
others had retained all. Some of the following 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 17 

are among those who had treasure with the purs- 
er: ♦ 

Clarence Berry, $110,000; Henry Anderson, 
$65,000; WilHam Stanley, $112,000; J. Clements, 
$50,000; Frank Keeler, $50,000; T. J. Kelly, $33,- 
000. The following men had from $30,000 to 
$100,000 each: Frank Phiscater, Nat Hall, A. 
McKenzie, B. F. Purcell, O. Finstead, Charles 
Silverlock, Jeremuah Johnson, Pete Copeland, 
C. E. Myers, F. Bellinger, R. H. Blake, Joe Bur- 
goyne, William Sims, John J. Mofifatt, Joe De- 
bosher, Fred Tabler, William Sloan, C. H. Love- 
land, N. Mercer, Charles Emcher, Harry Oleson, 
Charles Anderson, Henry Plato, Honora Gotthier 
and John Williamson, 

Most of the sixty passengers aboard the Weare, 
which started from winter quarters after the ice 
started in the Yukon, had been living on beans, 
bacon and bread or hard tack for from six 
months to a year, some longer. The little agency 
store at St. Michael was besieged for bottled ci- 
der, canned pineapples, apricots, cherries, or any- 
thing tart, and at a dollar a bottle cider went like 
mad. They were eager for raw turnips, and even 
for potatoes, and when a crate of onions was sent 
2 



18 KLONDIKE, 

over to the Weare from the Portland there was al- 
most a riot to get at them. 

The richest gold strike the world has ever 
known was made in the Klondike region last 
Aug-ust and September, but the news did not get 
even to Circle City until December 15, when there 
was a stampede. Circle City was deserted. But 
three white men and several Indians and women 
came out to greet the returning miners as they 
came down stream. 

George Carmack made the first great strike on 
Bonanza Creek August 12, and on August 19 
'even claims were filed in that region. Word 
^ot to Forty Mile and Circle City, but the news 
was looked on as a grub-stake rumor. 

December 15, however, authentic news was 
:arried to Circle City by J. M. Wilson, of the 
Alaska Commercial Company, and Thomas 
D'Brien, a trader. They carried not only news, 
but prospects, and the stampede was on. Those 
who made the 300-mile journey the quickest 
truck it the richest. Of all the 200 claims staked 
DUt of the Bonanza and Eldorado it is said not 
one proved a blank, and it was learned as the 
Weare left the diggings that equally rich finds 
had been made on June 6 to 10 on Dominion 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 19 

Creek. This last creek heads at Hunker Creek 
and runs into Indian Creek, and both run into 
the Klondike. Three hundred claims have al- 
ready been staked out on this Indian Creek, and 
the surface indications show that they are as rich 
as any of the others. 

The largest n^agget yet found was picked out 
by Burt Hudson on Claim Six of the Bonanza, 
and is worth a little over $250. The next largest 
was found by J. Clements, and was worth $231. 
The last four pans Clements took out ran $2000, 
or on an average of $500 each, and one of them 
went $775. Bigger pockets have been struck in 
the Caribou region and in California, but no 
where else on earth have men picked up so much 
gold in so short a time. A young man named 
Beecher came down a-foot and by dog sledge, 
starting out early in March. He brought $12,000 
to $15,000 with him. He was purser of the 
Weare last summer, and went in after the close 
of navigation in October or September. About 
December 15 he got a chance to work a shift on 
shares, and in sixty days made his stake, which 
was about $40,000. Gold is in circulation in 
Dawson in fabulous amounts. Saloons take in 
$3000 to $4000 each per night. Men who have 



20 KLONDIKE. 

been in all parts of the world where gold is mined 
say they never saw such quantities taken in so 
short a time. 

At least $2,500,000 has been taken from the 
ground on the British side within the past year, 
and about $1,000,000 from the American side. 
The diggings around Circle City and in the older 
places are rich. 

There was one woman in the throng of miners 
who came from the Yukon on the steamer Port- 
land. This was Mrs. J. S. Lippy, the wife of 
Prof. Lippy, who a year or two ago was secre- 
tary of the Y. M. C. A. at Seattle and who 
brought back with him $85,000 in gold. Mrs. 
Lippy was the first white woman on the creek 
and the only one in her camp, but she was not 
the first white woman to cross the divide. Nine 
or ten others were at Forty-mile Creek. 

Lippy went to the gold fields with hardly a 
grub stake. He believes his claim is worth $350,- 
000. It may be worth millions. 

Joseph Ladue, formerly of Binghamton, N. 
Y., was a farm hand before he went to x\laska. 
He struck it rich and is the owner of the town 
site of Dawson City. He counts himself a mil- 
lionaire. He went to the Northwestern country 



NEW LANDS OF GOLD. 21 

first in 1892 and has been there most of the time 
since. He left Dawson with a population of 3500. 
He was the first man to run a saw mill in Alaska, 
and it was a paying investment, although it was 
almost im.possible to get anybody to run it He 
paid men as high as $15 a day to work for him. 
The cheapest lumber he ever sold brought $100 
per thousand, and when planed double that 
amount. Mr. Ladue, since his return, has said 
that already eight hundred claims are staked 
within a radius of twenty miles of Dawson. There 
is jumping of claims. Three months' work each 
year is required to hold a claim. Failing in this 
the land reverts to the government. The laws 
of Canada are stringent in such matters, and se- 
vere penalties are imposed for jumping or other 
interference with the rights of claimants. 

Another successful argonaut is William Stan- 
ley, 68 years old, who up to two years ago kept 
a little stationery stand in Seattle. He left a 
wife at home with several children and took one 
son to the gold fields with him. He brought 
back $112,000 and left his son in the diggings. 
He is interested with his son and two New York 
men in claims which he values at $2,000,000. 
He went to the Yukon as a last resort, and made 
his findings in three months. 



22 KLONDIKE. 

Ethel Bush, of Selma, Cal, and Clarence 
Berry, of Fresno, were married March 15, 1896. 
They were penniless, and for a honeymoon they 
chose a journey to the Alaskan gold fields. They 
drove their dog team into Forty Mile camp 
eighty-seven days later. For weeks they toiled 
on without result. Then came the Klondike 
find, and they moved on to Dawson City, where 
they picked ocit over $100,000, and they sold 
their claim in San Francisco for $2,000,000. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE KLONDIKE AND THE YUKON 
DIGGINGS. 

The richest yields of gold in the Yukon region 
have come from the territory embraced by the 
138th and 145th degrees of longitude and the 
626. and 66th degrees of latitude, between the 
upper ramparts on the East — steep blufifs frown- 
ing on a picuresque bend in the river, and Fort 
Yukon on the west. The greatest extent of gold-? 



KLONDIKE AND YUKON DIGGINGS. 23 

bearing territory thus far explored is the Ameri- 
can side of the 141st degree of longitude, which 
is the accepted boundary line. The most sen- 
sational discoveries have been on the British 
side, about 140 miles to the east of the line. 

On the American side gold has been found in 
liberal quantities along a number of creeks, 
Birch Creek, Firty-mile Creek and Sixty-mile 
Creek being the most promising fields in the 
order named, and the centre for these diggings 
has been Circle City, on the bank of the Yukon, 
about 140 miles west of the boundary. On the 
British side of the Klondike River and the El- 
dorado and Bonanza Creeks, tributary to it near 
its junction with the Yukon, have proved the 
miners' paradise. There is a group of creeks 
very near the boundary, chief of whicn is Miller 
Creek, which have contributed most generously 
to the gold supply. These are claimed both by 
the American and the British officials, and there 
is grave danger that they may lead to interna- 
tional complications unless the boundary is 
quickly surveyed. 

Miller Creek, up to the time of the discovery 
of Klondike, was credited with the richest dig- 
gings along the Yukon in proportion to their 



24 KLONDIKE. 

extent. Over $300,000 was taken out last sea- 
son. The creek is only six miles long, but fifty- 
four claims were staked out on it. A claim con- 
sists of 500 feet of creek and reaching up indefi- 
nitely on both sides of the gulch. The creek is 
distant about sixty miles from Forty-mile Post, 
at the junction of Forty-mile Creek with the Yu- 
kon, and it is surrounded at short distances Dy 
Poker, Davis, Glacier and Little Gold Creeks, 
all bearing gold. 

The Klondike River enters the Yukon from 
the east at a bend about 300 miles east of Circle 
City and fifty miles north of Sixty-mile Creek. 
From Sixty-mile Creek the course of the Yukon 
is due north to the Klondike and then it starts 
again toward the West. The great copper belt 
crosses the Yukon just at this point, and the In- 
dians have had a fishing camp there for years, 
the Klondike being a noted stream for salmon. 
Its waters are very clear and shallow, as befits 
its source high up in the snow-capped ranges. 

"Klondike" means "reindeer." It is about as 
near the Indian word as the miscellaneous popu- 
lation of prospectors who have been digging 
there for gold were able to come. At the United 
States Coast and Geodetic Survey it is said the 



KLONDIKE AND YUKON DIGGINGS. 25 

word ought really to be spelled "Tlondak," 
which is Indian for ''fishing grounds," and tkaX 
is the name given to the stream which has now 
become synonymous with Eldorado in maps 
which were made in 1887 by Mr. McGrath, the 
Coast Survey official detailed at that time to ex- 
plore a country which was then quite unknown. 
McGrath very nearly starved to death on the 
very spot whence millions of dollars in yellow 
metal have been taken during the last twelve 
months, and he never suspected the presence at 
that immediate place of the precious metal. But 
that is another story. 

Miners have been taking out gold since 1894 
from the placer diggings on the American side 
of the line. The earliest diggings were at Forty 
Mile Creek, about sixty miles east of the Klon- 
dike, and then came discoveries at Sixty Mile 
Creek, a little farther south, and at Birch Creek, 
a good deal farther west. Of these diggings 
those along Birch Creek have been the most 
profitable, and the camp of Circle City, which 
was founded in the fall of 1894, was for a time 
a place of considerable importance. It was the 
distributing point for the whole region and was, 
in a measure, the metropolis of the Yukon Val- 



26 KLONDIKE. 

ley. Now it has been eclipsed, for a time, at any 
rate, by the new settlement at Dawson City. 
Circle City has the great advantage, however, of 
being on American soil, for whatever the pres- 
ent temporary tendency, it is believed by those 
who have studied the country most closely that 
the American side of the 141st parallel of longi- 
tude, which constitutes the Alaskan boundary, 
will eventually prove the richest and most pro- 
fitable portion of the gold-bearing territory. 
Over 500 men wintered at Circle City last year. 
The town, which is situated near the head waters 
of the Yukon, about 170 miles from Forty Mile 
Creek, is laid off in streets, with the main street 
facing the river, and it is so near to Birch Creek 
that a portage of six miles brings it to the banks 
of Birch Creek, two hundred miles from the 
mouth, and thus in a position to bring the gold 
ores taken out of this great American gold-bear- 
ing basin to the navigable waters of the Yukon. 
The gold diggings on American soil which have 
been prospected extend from the 141st to the 
146th degree of longitude. The Klondike region 
is just to the west of the 141st degree, Dawson 
City being situated at the junction of the Klon- 
dike and Yukon, about sixty miles to the west. 



KLONDIKE AND YUKON DIGGINGS. 27 

The experts of the Coast and Geological Sur- 
veys who have explored the country to some ex- 
tent estimate that the gold-yielding territory ex- 
tends over at least five hundred miles and that 
the richest portion of it is on American soil. The 
Cassiar Mountain region, as far east as the 130th 
degree of longitude on the northern border of 
British Columbia, has been worked with a good 
deal of success for the last eleven years, although 
the yield now seems to be falling off. The gold 
in this region comes from the same mother lode 
as that at Klondike, at Sixty Mile Creek, at 
Forty Mile Creek and at Birch Creek. Scientists 
believe it is from the same mother lode as the 
gold from the Sierras, and they even go so far 
as to assert that the gold mines of the Ural 
Mountains in Siberia go back to the same origi*. 
In other words, the whole country of two conti- 
nents, from the Ural Mountains to the Rockies, is 
impregnated with a mineral which is apparently 
exhaustless in extent and which will suffice to 
keep the world supplied with gold for ages to 
come. 

Nobody seems to know just when gold was 
first discovered in the Yukon Basin, for no two 
miners can be found to agree on the subject. It 



28 KLONDIKE. 

seems to be certain that none was ever found 
there before i860, although it is said that some 
of the Hudson Bay Company's men ran on to 
gold at about that time. But if they did the dis- 
covery was never followed up, and they are hardly 
entitled to the credit. It does not appear that 
the Russians, during their ownership and occu- 
pation of the country, ever instituted any thor- 
ouh search for the precious metals. It is true that 
gold was discovered by Doroshin on the Kenai 
Peninsula in 1848, and that he afterwards, in 
1850-51, made further explorations of the same 
neihborhood, but it has always been charged that 
the Russian-American Company, regarding, as it 
did, any effort to develop the mineral resources 
of the country as in the highest degree inimical to 
the business in which it was wholly engaged and 
of which it held an exclusive monopoly, induced 
him, by the payment of a consideration, to sup- 
press the truth in regard to what he may really 
have discovered. There is a tradition, too, 
among old Russian residents that a Russian en- 
gineer sent out by the Imperial Government to 
examine and report on the mineral resources 
of the country, made some rich discoveries on 
Baranoff Island, which he reported in Sitka, 



KLONDIKE AND YUKON DIGGINGS. 29 

whereupon, being of convivial habits, he was 
taken in charge by the governor, who was also 
the company's manager, by whom he was wined 
and dined and his appetite for drink ministered 
to until he sank into a drunkard's grave, and was 
thus prevented from making any report of his dis- 
coveries to the Imperial Government. Doro- 
shin did, however, report finding gold on the 
Kaknu River, which empties into Cook's Inlet, 
though it appears that his explorations were 
wholly confined to an examination of the alluvial 
sands of the streams and gulches in that neigh- 
borhood. To the fact that the Russian-American 
Company, like the Hudson Bay and American 
Fur Companies, believed that its interests would 
be jeopardized by the bringing to light of any 
natural resources which would invite immigra- 
tion, and thus tend to the early settlement and 
development of the country, is no doubt due the 
further fact that nothing was publicly known be- 
fore the transfer of the existence in Alaska of 
gold and silver in paying quantities. 

So far as is known, the first genuine prospector 
in the Yukon region was one George Holt, who 
is declared to have been the first white man to 
cross the coast range for that purpose. About 



30 KLONDIKE. 

all that is known of Holt is that he made his 
journey in 1878, but nobody seems to know 
what path he follovv^ed or whether he took the 
trail over the Chilkoot or White Pass. It is 
known only that he descended the chain of 
lakes above the Chilkoot Pass, which have since 
been traversed by so many other seekers after 
gold, that he followed the Indian trail to the 
Hootalinqua River and that he returned the same 
way in the fall. The Hootalinqua River region, 
which he penetrated, is about two hundred and 
fifty miles to the southwest of the Klondike. 
Holt reported that he found coarse gold near 
there, but no coarse gold has been discovered in 
that region since, although flour gold has been 
yielded up from the bars of the river. In any 
event, Holt did not find encouragement enough 
to continue his exploration. The next that is 
known is the expedition of Edward Bean, who 
started out from Sitka in 1880 at the head of a 
prospecting party. There were twenty-five men 
in the company. They crossed Chilkoot Pass to 
Lake Lindemann, built boats and descended 
the Lewis River as far as the Hootalinqua. Their 
success amounted to the finding of gold in a 
small stream fifteen miles above the canon yield- 



KLONDIKE AND YUKON DIGGINGS. 31 

ing $2JI5 per day. This was not a discovery cal- 
culated to encourage further attempts, but about 
this time many other small parties began to force 
their way through the Chilkoot Pass farther and 
farther up the lakes and the rivers. All of them 
found gold in greater or less quantities. The first 
party to discover gold in really paying quantities 
in the Yukon Basin consisted of four miners, 
who crossed the range in 1881 and descended the 
Lewis River as far as the Big Salmon River, as- 
cending that stream for over two hundred miles 
and finding gold on all its bars. The Cassiar 
Bar was not located until 1886, and up until a 
comparatively recent time this was the richest 
of all the bars ever located on the Yukon or any 
of its tributaries. It was in the same year that 
coarse gold was found on Forty Mile Creek on 
American soil several hundred miles down the 
river. This discovery drew off all the miners 
who had been digging in the upper river country 
on Canadian territory. The bars at Forty Mile 
Cretk were worked for some years at a good 
profit, but they have now been abandoned owing 
to the discovery of coarse gold more easily ic- 
cessible in the gulches. Forty Mile Creek, which 
will always be of interest from the fact that it 



32 KLONDIKE. 

was the scene of the first touch of gold excitement 
in Alaska, owes its name to the fact that it en- 
etrs the Yukon abo^jt forty miles from Old Fort 
Reliance. It is about two hundred and fifty miles 
long and has many tributaries, all of which carry 
gold in paying quantities. Sixty Mile Creek en- 
ters the Yukon River from the southwest 
and about seventy miles above the mouth of 
the Stewart. It has given up excellent yields of 
gold, and about lOO miners have wintered every 
year of late at a trading post and a saw mill 
which have been established on one of its islands 
Birch Creek was not prospected until 1893, and 
then only just enough to show that the country 
contains some gold. In the season of 1894 near- 
ly one hundred men prospected this country and 
staked off their claims. It was found that bed- 
rock was much nearer the surface than in the 
Forty Mile Creek district, and the claims yielded 
very good returns. They drew many men away 
from the Forty Mile Creek mine. 

The mining of these regions is still in its in- 
fancy, although it has been going on in more or 
less desultory fashion for the last fifteen years, 
and only a few of the most accessible streams 
have ever been prospected. All the larger rivers 



KLONDIKE AND YUKON DIGGINGS. 33 

of the upper country furnish flour gold which 
increases in coarseness as the rivers are ascend- 
ed, and from this it is argued that the surround- 
ing gulches in many places must furnish ex- 
ceedingly rich diggings. The territory cut by 
these streams has never been explored even su- 
perficially except as it may have been explored 
in the last year by miners hunting for gold, and 
yet it is almost unlimited in extent. A hundred 
thousand men could be hunting gold in the Yu- 
kon Basin at the same time without ever cross- 
ing one another's tracks and each would be lost 
to the world. 

The honor of discovering the richest placer 
mines in the world belongs to an Illinois man 
named George Carmack. A party of miners, 
drifting by the mouth of the Klondike on July 
9, 1896, found Carmack camped in a lonely spot 
there with his family. His wife was a native 
woman of the Stick tribe, and he had two dark- 
skinned children following him about. 

He had been in the country eight years, and 
much of the time had been spent with the Sticks 
at Tagish House, on the chain of lakes that form 
the source of the coastward arm of the Yukon, 
on the trail from Juneau to the gold fields. When 

3 



34 KLONDIKE. 

found Carmack was making quite extensive 
preparations for curing salmon, the annual run 
of which was expected to begin any day. He 
had erected a birch-covered shed for the better 
protection of his catch from the weather, and 
he already had his nets at the mouth of the Klon- 
dike, a half-mile farther down. Carmack expect- 
ed to sell his crop the following winter, prin- 
cipally for dog feed, although in times of food 
famine, as really occurred last winter, dried sal- 
mon became a staple article of diet for white 
men. 

Carmack told his visitors of his intention to 
prospect the Klondike as soon as the salmon 
season was over. Four weeks later he took two 
Indians and started up the stream. After a few 
miles of laborious poling against a rapid cur- 
rent they turned into the first considerable tribu- 
tary that came in from the right. Here condi- 
tions were favorable for prospecting, the water 
being shallow, and they found gold in encourag- 
ing quantities on the bars of the creek. They 
followed the windings of this stream for twenty 
or twenty-five miles before they made locations 
and went to work. 

The results were almost enough to turn the 



KLONDIKE AND YUKON DIGGINGS. 35 

brain of a prospector who had searched lor many- 
years in the hope of finding gravel that would 
yield a few grains' weight of gold to the pan. 
Here at a depth of three feet in the low bars by 
the creek they found dirt that carried a dollar to 
the pound in coarse, ragged bits of gold. Others 
have since found diggings ten-fold richer. 

As remote as their discovery was they were 
not long to remain in sole possession of it. With 
the exhaustion of their few days' provisions, the 
two Indians were sent back to the village for 
supplies. 

About the middle of August, when the P. B. 
Weare, on one of its occasional trips, arrived at 
the Indian village, which is about half way be- 
tween Forty Mile and Sixty Mile Creeks, the 
Indians were waiting there to lay in their sup- 
plies. There were also several other prospectors 
who happened along, and the discovery was 
now common talk. The stories of fortune prov- 
ed a little too much for the crew of the Weare 
to withstand. They deserted in a body and joined 
the rush to the new gold fields. The captain, 
after being delayed three or four days, got an 
Indian crew sufficiently trained to handle the 
boat. When he arrived at Forty Mile on his re- 



36 KLONDIKE. 

turn the reports were alluring- enough to Impel 
a hundred or more men to start at once for the 
new find. 

The Klondike had been known for several 
years to drain a gold country, and the first five 
miles of it had been indifferently prospected, but 
the gold hunters were generally run out by bears. 

If the miners had made any encouraging finds 
at the outset it would have been different, but 
all other things being equal, in their estimation, 
they concluded to try streams where the bears 
were not so aggressive. And it happened that 
there was a reason for the bears being so bad in 
that particular place. It is possibly the best 
stream for salmon of all the tributaries of the 
great river. 

The mountains along that section of the Yu- 
kon, and in fact, from Circle City up stream fur 
several hundred miles, are extremely wild and 
rugged. The great copper belt, which crosses 
the Yukon at the Klondike, is a succession of 
massive quartz ledges, with that metal predomi- 
nating. The veins are known to carry gold, but 
in what proportion is yet to be determined. 

Here also is the pioneer quartz mine of the 
Yukon. Captain Healy, the manager of the 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 37 

transportation company, located a claim on the 
side of a precipice opposite the mouth of the 
Klondike over two years ago. Vein mining had 
never been thought of as a present undertaking. 
Labor was worth $15 a day and supplies of all 
kinds were proportionately high, but he put up 
his location. 

Last year he did some development work on 
it and had samples assayed, showing it to be rich 
in gold. But the latest reports from the Klon- 
dike put such extravagant prices on labor that 
quartz will not be considered for some time yet. 

Still it is in the veins that will be found the 
real wealth of this wonderful country. 



CHAPTER III. 

SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 

The first requirement for one seeking the gold 
fields is a hardy constitution; the second is capi- 
tal. For the Yukon is not, as some other gold 
countries have been, a poor man's paradise. 
Gold is there in Aladdin-like profusion, but it is 
not to be had for the asking. It comes only as 



-38 KLONDIKE. 

the fruit of wearisome and perilous travel, of des- 
perate combat with the rigors of an Arctic cli- 
mate, of deadly waiting for Arctic winters to 
unloose their icy hands. For the privilege of a 
few months of toil the prospecting miner must 
endure many months of unremunerative delay, 
during which he must pay extortionately for the 
mere privilege of living. For the season of pla- 
cer mining lasts only during June, July and Au- 
gust. 

Before beginning even to hunt for gold the 
aspiring miner must prepare himself for the long 
and tedious trip to the fields, and this is a task 
that will tax the endurance and nerve of the most 
liardy. It means, according to one who has 
made the trip, "packing provisions over pathless 
mountains, towing a heavy boat against a five 
to an eight-mile current, over battered boulders, 
digging in the bottomless frost, sleeping where 
night overtakes, fighting gnats and mosquitoes 
by the millioHS, shooting seething canyons and 
rapids and enduring for seven long months a 
relentless cold which never rises above zero and 
frequently falls to 80 below." 

Any man who is physically able to endure all 
this, who will go to the gold fields for a few 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 39 

years, can, by strict attention to business, make 
a good strike, with the possibihties of a fortune. 

But he must have money to start with. All 
who have been to the gold fields agree in saying 
that no man should undertake the journey with 
less than $400 in capital. And he had better have 
$1000. The expense of reaching the mines is 
considerable. One hundred and fifty dollars is 
a modest figure for the journey from Seattle, and 
when once in the gold region the expense of liv- 
ing is enormous. The prices of even the most 
ordinary provisions are fabulous, and the com- 
panies doing business there refuse to give credit, 
as they can sell all their goods and more for 
ready cash. Provisions are almost unobtainable 
at any price. An officer of the U. S. Geological 
Survey, who has traveled through this country, 
has assured the author of this book that if he 
were looking for certain profit and had the ne- 
cessary capital he would never think of hunting 
for gold, but would invest everything in provi- 
sions and groceries, which would yield enorm.ous 
profits should they be got into the Yukon region. 

If the traveler contemplates the overland trip 
his outfit should be bought in Juneau, the me- 
tropolis of Southeastern Alaska, the last out- 



40 KLONDIKE. 

post of civilization in the path of the voyager for 
gold. The needs of the traveler can be gauged 
there better than anywhere else, nearer the centre 
of population and wealth. Experienced men 
have found that the provisions a man ought to 
lav by before starting on the overland journey 
from Juneau make a formidable list. The arti- 
cles required for one man for one month are 
somewhat as follows: 

Twenty pounds of flour, with baking powder. 

12 pounds of bacon. 

6 pounds of beans. 

5 pounds of dried fruits. 

3 pounds of dessicated vegetables. 

4 pounds of butter. 

5 pounds of sugar. 
4 cans of milk. 

1 pound of tea. 

3 pounds of coffee. 

2 pounds of salt. 

' Five pounds of corn meal. 
Pepper, 
Matches. 
Mustard. 

Cooking utensils and dishes. 
Frying pan. 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 41 

Water kettle. 

Tent. 

Yukon stove. 

Two pairs good blankets. 

One rubber blanket. 

Bean poi. 

Two plates. 

Drinking cup. 

Tea pot. 

Knife and fork. 

Large cooking pan. 

Small cooking pan. 

These are simply for sustenance. In addi- 
tion the traveler will find it necessary to build his 
own boat with which to thread the chain of lakes 
and rivers leading to the gold basin. He will 
need the following tools: 

Jack plane. 

Whip saw. 

Hand saw. 

Rip saw. 

Draw knife. 

Ax. 

Hatchet. 

Pocket rule. 

Six pounds -of assorted nails. 



42 KLONDIKE. 

Three pounds of oakum. 
Five pounds of pitch. 
Five pounds of five-eighths rope. 
He will also find that he must have some pro- 
tection against the deadly assaults of gnats and 
mosquitos, which fill the air throughout Alaska; 
that he will have to be provided for mountain 
climbing and for protection against snow bhnd- 
ness, whch is one of the most demoralizing af- 
flictions that can befall the traveler over the snow- 
covered passes. So he will need: 
Mosquito netting. 
One pair crag-proof hip boots. 
Snow glasses. 
Medicm^s. 

These are the provisions necessary for a miner 
for a single month, and whether he will need 
more for his journey depends somewhat upon 
the manner in which he travels. In the first 
place nobody should undertake to travel alone. 
The trip should be made in parties of two or 
more, which will conduce to safety and also 
lightness of the individual's load. It is possible 
for parties to attend to their own transportation 
over the divide between Juneau and the lakes. 
In that case they should start before the first of 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 4$ 

April so as to catch the snows and ice. They can 
use sleighs over the summit of Chilkoot Pass 
and along the lakes down to the place of junc- 
tion with the river. By the time the river is 
reached the ice will have begun to break away 
and the rest of the journey can be managed by 
boat. By this arrangement the gold fields can 
be reached four weeks earlier than by waiting 
for the opening of the summer season before 
starting from Juneau. Should the start be de- 
ferred till after April 30, Indians will have to be 
employed to do the packing across the pass. The 
Indians charge $14 per hundred for this ser- 
vice, and each is accustomed to carry about a 
hundred weight. 

Before making a start the wise traveler will 
consider the cost of living in the diggings and 
provide himself accordingly. Following are a 
few of the average prices of provisions and ar- 
ticles of common use: 

Cost of shirts $5-00 

Boots, per pair 10.00 

Rubber boots, per pair 25.00 

Caribou hams, each 40.00 

Flour, per fifty pounds 20.00 

Beef, per pound (fresh) 50 



44 KLONDIKE. 

Bacon, per pound 75 

Coffee, per pound i.oo 

Sugar, per pound 50 

I Eggs, per dozen 2.00 

Condensed milk, per can i.oo 

Live dogs, per pound 2.00 

Picks, each 15.00 

Shovels, each 15.00 

Wages, per day 15.00 

Lumber, per 1000 feet 150.00 

When the miners left Dawson City the follow- 
ing prices were in vogue: 

Flour, per 100 lbs $12.00 

Moose ham, per lb i.oo 

Caribou meat, per lb 65 

Beans, per lb 10 

E-ice, per lb 25 

Sugar, per lb 25 

Bacon, per lb 40 

Butter, per roll 1.50 

Eggs, per dozen 1.50 

Better eggs, per dozen 2.00 

Salmon, each $1 to 1.50 

Potatoes, per lb 25 

Turnips, per lb 15 

Tea, per lb i.oo 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 45 

Coffee, per lb 50 

Dried fruits, per lb 35 

Canned fruits 50 

Canned meats , 75 

Lemons, each 20 

Oranges, each 50 

Tobacco, per lb 1.50 

Liquors, per drink 50 

Shovels 2.50 

Picks 5.00 

Coal oil, per gallon i.oo 

Overalls 1.50 

Underwear, per suit $5 to 7.50 

Shoes 5.00 

Rubber boots $10 to 15.00 

The tourist from the Atlantic seaboard will 
find in the following table information concern- 
ing the expenses of travel according to his means 
and inclination: 

Fare from New York to Seattle via Northern 
Pacific, $81.50. 

Fee for Pullman sleeper, $20.50. 

Fee for tourist sleeper, run only west of St. 
Paulu, $5. 

Meals served in dining car for entire trip, $16. 

Meals are served at stations along the route a 
la carte. 



46 KLONDIKE. 

Distance from New York to Seattle, 3290 
miles. 

Days required to make tlie journey, about six. 

Fare for steamer from Seattle to Juneau, in- 
cluding cabin and meals, $32 cabin; $17 steerage. 

Days, Seattle to Jcmeau, about five. 

Number of miles from Seattle to Juneau, 725. 

Cost of living in Juneau, about $3 a day. 

Distance up Lynn Canal to Dyea, steamboat, 
75 miles. 

Number of days New York to Dyea, twelve. 

Cost of complete outfit for overland journey, 
about $150. 

Cost provisions for one year, $200. 

Cost of dogs, sled and outfit, about $150. 

Steamer leaves Seattle once a week. 

Best time to start is early in the spring. 

Total cost of trip New York to Klondike, about 

Number of days required for journey, Nev^^ 
York to Klondike, thirty-six to forty. 

Total distance, Juneau to the mines at Klon- 
dike, 650 miles. 

Having settled the question of expense, the 
next thing is to select a route. The routes that 
go into Klondike are two. The most expensive 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 4; 

is by steamer from Seattle to St. Michael, a 
distance of 2500 miles, and then by river boat up 
the Yukon, 1700 miles to Dawson City. By this 
route it takes thirty-five or forty days, and the 
fare is $180. The steamers permit only 150 
pounds of baggage for each passenger. The two 
steamers that leave before the river is closed 
by ice this fall cannot carry more than 150 pas- 
sengers each. This route is the more expensive, 
and some think the more comfortable. 

The second route is overland from Juneau, 
and is the most perilous, the most subject to 
hardships and consequently the most fascinating 
fortune-hunting journey that could be imagined. 
Steamers run from Seattle to Juneau, which 
is the metropolis of Alaska, and thence a small 
steamer transports the seeker after gold up Lynn 
Canal and Chilkoot Inlet to Dyea, sometimes 
called Taiya, which has just been made a port of 
entry by Secretary Gage for the benefit of the 
incoming horde of miners. The distance is 650 
miles. Dyea is just at the head of the northern- 
most branch of Chilkoot Inlet, which is itself a 
branch of Lynn Canal, the extreme northern 
limit of navigation, and is one hundred miles 
due north of Juneau. At Dyea the overland jour- 



48 KLONDIKE. 

ney begins. The outfit, which for the long period 
of isolation in the interior is no small affair, is 
packed on sleds and hauled for twenty-seven 
miles over the mountains and over the deadly 
Chilkoot Pass to Lake Lindeman, the first of 
the series of lakes reaching up into the interior. 
This passage of twenty-seven miles is the most 
difficult part of the whole journey. It would be 
bad enough if it were made without baggage. A 
good traveler, in prime condition, unhampered 
by an elaborate outfit, can make the summit of 
Chilkoot Pass from Dyea in twelve hours. Mr. 
Pratt, of the United States Coast Survey, who 
was in Alaska on the boundary commission sev- 
eral years ago, left Dyea with a companion at 9 
o'clock one morning and reached the summit of 
Chilkoot Pass at 9 o'clock the same night. But 
that was a case of moving light infantry. Ordi- 
narily it will take a miner at least two days to 
make the difficult ascent with a portion of his 
outfit, and sometimes it is necessary for him to go 
back to the starting point for the rest of his out- 
fit, for it is to be borne in mind that transporta- 
tion companies have not yet secured a charter to 
do business in Chilkoot Pass. .Thus it is that at 
least six days might be used up in getting over 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 49 

the short distance from salt water to fresh. Some- 
times it takes even longer than that. The only 
assistance that can be obtained is that of the In- 
dians, who can be hired to carry outfits over the 
divide at an expense of $14 for every hundred 
pounds. This is done in the absence of snow,, 
which precludes sledding". With the present rush 
to the gold fields the natives will receive large 
profits. The overland trip involves a climb of 
3500 feet to the summit of Chilkoot Pass, and it 
is one of the most impressively picturesque jour- 
neys that can be imagined. The landscape is 
resplendent with glaciers, the ice sparkles like 
jewels in the Alaskan sun, the mcK,mtains rise in 
the distance on every side, and it is all impressive 
beyond the power of description. Beyond this 
the trip is exhausting, though necessarily not so 
dangerous as in the pass, for there are times when, 
sudden snows come to fill in the pass without 
warning, and there are few who have survived 
such an encounter with the elements as this. But 
with Lake Lindeman a new feature of the jour- 
ney presents itself. Those who make the journey 
in summer will find the ice out of the lakes, but if 
an early start were to be made they would be able 
to cross Lake Lindman and the other lakes of the 
4 



50 KLONDIKE. 

chain on foot or else by means of ice boats tem- 
porarily constructed. The ice breaks up in the 
lake about the first of May, and then it becomes 
necessary for the travelers to stop and build 
boats. Until the last year it was necessary for 
every miner to carry a whip saw with him with 
which to cut the timber for his craft, and whip- 
sawing was one of the picturesque, although not 
especially inviting, incidents of the trip. But a 
saw mill has recently been constructed. The only 
timber used in the construction of boats on the 
lakes is spruce or Norway pine. In the first 
place, the timber has to be located, and this is not 
the easiest thing in the world, because the timber 
around the lake is nearly all burned oiif, and there 
is none suitable for boat building. After the tim- 
ber has been located comes the construction of a 
saw pit. To construct a saw pit it is necessary to 
find trees so arranged as to support cross-pieces, 
the stumps being cut at a proper distance from 
■ the ground so as to take the notched cross-pieces 
in. This requires four trees about equi-distant 
from one another, and the cross-pieces have to 
be fixed very firmly in place so as not to slip, as 
the log which is to be sawed is likely otherwise 
to be the cause of an accident. Often a good 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD, $1 

woodsman will be able to fell the tree which is to 
be sawed in such a way that it will fall into the 
pit, which saves the time and trouble of skidding 
the log up and rolling it in place after felling, 
v/hich is frequently a very difficult task. From 
the slabs and boards thus roughly made the flat- 
boats are constructed, upon which the miners 
traverse the chain of lakes extending north from 
Chilkoot Pass. Lake Lindman is about six miles 
long, with an average width of one mile, and is 
cleared to navigation usually after May 15th, al- 
though sometimes not before June loth. Con- 
necting with it is Lake Bennett, which is twenty- 
six miles long, with an average breadth of one 
mile; and then comes Tagish Lake. Lake Ben- 
nett is surrounded by high mountains, which rise 
abruptly on either side, making it exceedingly 
difficult to find a landing place. It is rather per- 
ilous for rafts and boats on account of the strong 
winds which sweep up from the south throcigh 
Chilkoot Pass, Lake Bennett acting as a funnel 
for that norrow passage. The winds are always 
in the south and are caused by the hot air of the 
inland valleys, supplemented by the cooler air 
of the coast, rushing inland over the low passes 
and down the lakes. As Lake Bennett is only 



52 KLONDIKE. 

five miles wide at its broadest place, and at many 
points is much less than a mile, the air is forced 
over it between the high ridges of mountains 
at a tremendous rate. Some of the mountains 
reach a height of 8000 feet. The climate is dry, 
and what little rain falls consists of an occasional 
thunder shower. The air is cool and bracing 
from the snow-capped peaks, which temper the 
warmth of a down-pouring sun. 

Lake Bennett is connected with Lake Tagish 
by a very crooked and shallow channel with a 
slight current known as Caribou Crossing, from 
the fact that it was used by the bands of barren 
land caribou in their migrations in the fall and 
spring. Tagish Lake is an irregular body of 
water with two arms, known as Windy Arm and 
Taku Arm, stretching off to the south and south- 
east. Taku Arm is really a larger body of water 
than that particular portion known as Tagish 
Lake, but Tagish Lake acquires its importance 
from being directly in line of travel between Lake 
Lindeman and Lake Bennett on the south and 
Lake Marsh on the north. Tagish Lake is con- 
nected with Lake Marsh by a broad river with 
slow current, lined with wooded slopes and plen- 
ty of Cottonwood and white spruce. The river is 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 53 

about five miles long, and on it is situated the 
Tagish House, where yearly festivals and councils 
of v^ar are held by the natives, the buildings being 
the only permanent structures in hundreds of 
miles above where the Pelly and Lewis Rivers 
join to make the Yukon. 

Lake Marsh, which is next entered, stretches 
along at a width of two miles for a distance of 
twenty, the most notable feature of all these lakes 
being their narrowness as compared with their 
length. Lake Marsh is in the middle of a broad 
valley, from which high ranges of mountains 
stand out prominently at a considerable distance. 
Its banks, like the banks of the other lakes, are 
well wooded. From Lake Marsh the seeker for 
gold finds his way into Lewis River, which he 
follows for a distance of more than a hundred 
miles to the northwest until he reaches the gold 
fields around the Klondike Basin. 1 his journey 
along Lev/is River, with its canons and rapids, is 
one of the most picturesque and interesting that 
can possibly be imagined. One of the features 
of the trip is the high cut banks which stretch 
along for mile after mile and which are complete- 
ly honeycombed by martins, which resort thereto 
rear their young. Lake Marsh is the limit for 



64 KLONDIKE. 

the migration of the salmon, which arrive there 
in small numbers, although those who do brave 
the journey are said to be the finest to be found 
anywhere in the world, averaging forty pounds 
in weight. The swift waters of the Grand Canon 
are too powerful ever for the salmon whose har- 
dihood brings them as far up the river as this. 

The Grand Canon is a wonderfully beautiful 
bit of scenery. It is cut through a horizontal 
basalt bed, and the walls range in height from 
fifty to one hundred and tv/enty feet, being worn 
into all sorts of fantastic shapes. The average 
width of the canon is about one hundred feet, 
and as the average width of the river above it 
is over seven hundred feet, the force with which 
this great volume of water cuts through the 
steep ledges of rock may be imagined. Mr. Wil- 
son, who made this trip in 1894 and who has 
described it at length in his "Guide to the Yukon 
Gold Field," says that he shot through the can- 
on for a distance of three-quarters of a mile in 
two minutes and twenty seconds, and when his 
boat emerged from the chasm it was leaking bad- 
ly and nearly every nail was started. Two miles 
beyond come the White Horse Rapids, which 
form a perilous passage even for the best of 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 55 

boats, and farther down comes Lake Labarge, at 
a distance of about fifty miles from Lake Marsh. 
Lake Labarge is thirty-one miles long, with an 
average width of five miles, and is very windy. 
It is the last of the remarkable series of lakes be- 
ginning with Lake Lindeman in the south. And 
here attention should be drawn to the singular 
conformation of the country w^iich makes the 
springs no farther distant than thirty miles from 
tidewater on the south find their outlet in the 
great system of rivers which pour their waters 
through the Yukon into Bering Sea thousands 
of miles away. 

The Hootalinqua River enters the Lewis 
twenty-eight miles below Lake Labarge and has 
acquired an interest apart from its size owing to 
the fact that it was the limit of the journey of 
the earliest prospector for gold in this region. 
Thirty-one miles farther down is the Big Salmon, 
and thirty-five miles still farther comes the Little 
Salmon, both of which are great streams for 
fishing, many Indians spending the summer 
months on the larger river preparing their win- 
ter salmon. After proceeding eighty miles far- 
ther the argonauts come to old Fort Selkirk, at 
the junction of the Pelly and Lewis Rivers, 



66 KLONDIKE. 

where there is a trading post. This is the far- 
thest point to which the shallow boats which ply 
the Yukon reach, and the P. B. Weare, which 
will be a familiar name no doubt to those miners 
hereafter who endeavor to reach the gold fields 
by the water route, has been accustomed to win- 
ter. Ninety-six miles farther down the White 
River, which is described as the most wonderful 
of all the great system, enters the Yukon from 
the west. The volume of water is vast; it is mud- 
dy in color, and the current flovv's at the rate of 
eight or ten miles an hour. It discharges itself 
into the Yukon with such force that the roar can 
be heard for a long distance, and it muddies the 
larger river until the waters of the two can hard- 
ly be distinguished. The White River comes 
from a glacier region and is supposed to flow 
over volcanic deposits, but the meagreness of 
the information which exists in regard to this 
whole interior country appears in the fact that 
little more than has been said is known about 
one of the largest and most remarkable streams 
in the territory of the United States. Ten miles 
farther down the Yukon receives the v/aters of 
the Stewart River, along which rich finds of gold 
have recently been made. It is a quartz forma- 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 57 

tion and the rock assays $300. Seventy miles 
farther Sixty Mile Creek joins the swelling 
stream and fifty miles beyond Sixty Mile Creek 
the Klondike River enters from the east. The 
Yukon between the Klondike River on the east, 
and where Sixty Mile Creek enters it on the west, 
runs almost directly north and south. The gold 
discoveries on Sixty Mile Creek have been far 
to the west on the American side of the boun- 
dary, while the discoveries on the Klondike 
River have been to the east and altogether on 
Canadian soil. Continuing down the river from 
Koldnike the traveler would come to Forty Mile 
Creek, which a year ago was the centre of such 
gold mining excitement as there was, but for the 
present at any rate no seeker after wealth will 
venture a step beyond the Klondike region. The 
reports of miners coming from the gold fields 
all agree that the placer diggings along Forty 
Mile Creek, Sixty Mile Creek and Birch Creek 
have been abandoned for the more spectacular, 
sensational findings on the Klondike River. 
That Circle City is occupied by only a stray min- 
er or tow, and that Forty Mile Post, which in 1895 
boasted ten saloons, two restaurants, three bil- 
liard halls, two dance houses, an opera house, a 



68 KLONDIKE. 

cigar factory, a barber shop, two bakeries, sev- 
eral breweries and distilleries and a store, is now 
a deserted camp. 

This desertion of Forty Mile Post and of Cir- 
cle City, which is one hundred and seventy-live 
miles farther down the river, is believed by min- 
ing experts to be temporary, for the fields which 
feed them are practically exhaustless, although 
they have been abandoned now for diggings 
which will yield speedier returns. 

But for the present the traveler may be safely 
left at Klondike, which was his original destina- 
tion, having spent seven weeks in traversing the 
650 miles between Lynn Canal and Dawson (^ity, 
with dangerous and exciting experience, through 
swift and treacherous currents, log jams, float- 
ing ice and debris, whirl pools and rapids and 
dark canons full of unknown difficulties. Tlic 
quickest time which can be made under existing 
conditions between Juneau and Dawson City is 
about a month. 

Those who wish to take the route by way of 
St. Michael can board the steamer at San Fran- 
cisco or Seattle, travel twenty-five hundred miles 
to St. Michael, which is the Alaskan seaport near 
the mouth of the Yukon River, then travel on 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 5^ 

the little river steamer 1895 miles clear across 
-American territory and well into British Colum- 
bia. This trip takes about thirty days and the 
traveler is subject to tedious delays caused by 
ice jams and sand bars, so that by the time he. 
reaches the gold field he is hardly in condition* 
to take advantage of his opportunities. The 
period during which the Yukon River is navi- 
gable is so short that some think it hardly pays 
to attempt the journey in this way, although 
hundreds have essayed the trip in the first flush 
of the gold excitement. The ice does not break 
up at the mouth of the river earlier than the first 
of June and by the time the traveler reaches the 
fields and locates his claim winter is almost ready 
to set in and he is obliged to exist as best he can 
through the bitter cold of Arctic days. So it is 
that the majority of prospectors will continue to 
avail themselves of the overland trip from Ju- 
neau which has been described in detail. 

A new route to the Klondike will be opened 
next spring. It is overland from Juneau to Fort 
Selkirk, on the Yukon, and is entirely by land. 
Captain Goodall, of the Pacific Coast Steamship 
Company, inspected it this summer and reported 
it practicable. It is about 700 miles long, and it 



60 KLONDIKE. 

crosses the divide over Chillkoot Pass, which is 
about fifty-five miles to the east of Chilkoot 
Pass. No lakes or rivers are on the route, but 
the trail runs over a high, level prairie. Old pio- 
neer Dalton, after whom the trail is named, is 
now driving a band of sheep on the trail to Daw- 
son City, where he expects to arrive in August 
witn fresh meat for the miners. This Dalton 
trail is well dapted for driving stock, but for 
men to tramp it is believed to be too long. 

One who is now at the Klondike diggings 
writes from there of his journey overland as fol- 
lows : 

"We arrived here from Dyea after seventy 
days of the hardest travel I ever experienced. 
We had all our provisions in cachet at Chilkoot 
Pass. We loaded everything on three sleds and 
turned them loose down the three-mile declivity. 
They landed all safe at the bottom on the Yukon 
side. 

'Then we followed, winging and tumbling 
after. We crossed Lake Lindeman on the ice all 
right at the foot of ihe mountams and got safely 
to the head of Lake Bennett. By this time the 
weather was getting warmer and the snow melt- 
ing. The snow crust on the lake would support 



SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. 6l 

the sleds, but we broke through at every step, 
and there was about a foot of slush under tne 
crust. After wading- this way for two days and 
having traversed but four miles we went into 
camp to wait for a cold snap or more of a thaw 
to break up the ice. We lay in camp for three 
days, and then came a cold spell, the wind blow- 
ing a gale. 

"When we struck Marsh Lake the weather 
had become warm again, and it took us three 
days to make seven miles through eight inches 
of slush, so we waded into a good patch of tim- 
ber and remained there fourteen davs building a 
boat. It took us six days to fell the trees and 
saw the boards out. 

"When we got to the great Yukon we launch- 
ed our little craft and tried her in the swift cur- 
rent of the mighty river (a river as large as the 
Mississippi) and found she would answer our 
purpose very well. The next day we came to a 
canon called 'Miller's Canon,' the most danger- 
ous place on the river, where many a party have 
lost all they had, and their lives, too. It is a 
steep cut through the mountain range. The wa- 
ter rushes through with frightful speed. There 
is a long, devious way around the canon by land 



62 KLONDIKE. 

which requires four da3^s' hard work to get over, 
while to shoot the canon pnly takes two and 
one-half minutes. 

''As soon as the boat entered the canon she 
seemed to shiver and then plunged head fore- 
most into the first waves, and about a half bar- 
rel of water came over the bow. Then she 
straightened out and rode through the rapids 
without shipping a drop more water. We con- 
tinued down the river to Lake Labarge, thirty- 
five miles. There our boat riding ended for the 
present, the lake being still frozen solid. It is 
thirty miles long. The ice was smooth as glass, 
so we rigged up two sails on the boat (which 
we had deposited on two sleds). 

''Two days later we once more launched into 
the friendly Yukon and floated calmly down the 
river to Klondike, a distance of four hundred 
miles from the last lake, in eight days." 

There is talk already of building a railroad in- 
to the gold diggings, and the Canadian Govern- 
ment has been asked to help. An appropriation 
of $5000 was passed by the present Parliament 
to send surveyors into the field. 

Two routes are suggested — one from a point 
on the Canadian Pacific, the other from Dyea. 



LIFE IN CAMP. 63 

It is said that neither offers serious difficulties 
from an engineering point of view. From Dyea 
only eighty miles of road would have to be built, 
the rest of the route being to the mines by means 
of the lakes and rivers. This road would abolish 
the peril of the Chilkoot Pass. The other route 
is 500 miles long and entirely within the juris- 
diction of the Dominion of Canada, while the 
Dyea route would have its terminus in the soil 
of the United States. The day may not be far 
distant when the Alaskan country will be tra- 
versed by rail from the Canadian Pacific to Be- 
ring Straits. American enterprise may run a 
road all along the coast from Seattle to Asia. 



CHAPTER IV. 



LIFE IN CAMP. 

A mining camp is always a spot of intense hu- 
man interest. It is the breaking of the frontier 
— the first contact of civilization with the wilder- 
ness — and it brings into play all the rough ele- 
mental qualities of the human animal. The Yu- 
kon minmg camps have been little worlds by 



64 KLONDIKE. 

themselves, isolated and ice-bound, and they have 
been rich in incident, though from all accounts 
they seem, to have lacked the easy indifference 
to the sanctity of human life which characterized 
the earlier mining camps of California and Col- 
orado. Forty Mile Post, for example, has been 
described as a characteristic gold town in every 
way but one. It boasts the company stores, an 
opera house, a barber shop, two bakeries, two 
restaurants, three billiard parlors, two terpsi- 
chorean resorts, several distilleries and ten sa- 
loons. Its exceptional feature is the utter ab- 
sence of that lawlessness and disorder always 
looked for in frontier places. This same peaceful 
state of affairs obtains throughout the country. 
Law there is none, except miner's law, that stern, 
Draconian code, which decrees the extreme pen- 
alty for the least offense. The fact that there has 
never been a lynching or shooting affray there is 
testimony of the efficiency of self-government, 
where the consent of the governed has been se- 
cured. 

It is not unlikely that some part of the general 
obedience is due to the liberality with which the 
moral obligation is constr-ued. The Yukon Deca- 
logue contains rather less than ten command- 



LIFE IN CAMP. 65 

ments. Thou shalt not avoid thy just debts: 
thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbor's claim, nor his sluice- 
boxes, nor his cabin, nor his mission squaw, nor 
anything that is his, make up the prohibited list. 

One can hang a sack of gold dust outside of 
his cabin and it is perfectly safe. One saloon- 
keeper has $160,000 in gold in a little shack and 
he never locks his door. 

A returning traveler says the only reminder of 
law and vested authority that he saw on the en- 
tire journey down the Yukon was at Forty Mile, 
or, to speak more precisely, at Fort Cudahy, 
whcih is across the bend of the river a mile or 
two away from the former place. There vv^as a 
low stockade and a flagpole with the union jack 
flying. 

There is a detachment of twenty-five Canadian 
mounted police stationed here and a magistrate, 
md the whole machinery of the law as applied to 
territories is in operation. They have very little 
to do in maintining order, and the police may 
be pardoned for assuming a little commission on 
the side, as it were, in going over the line into 
American territory to put Messres. Van Wagenen 
5 



66 KLONDIKE. 

and Hestwood in possession of their mine, which 
was held by indignant miners. 

The poHce are a well-equiped and well-drilled 
body of men, armed with Lee-Metford rifles. xA.s 
cavalry or mounted police they are out of their 
element, as it is impracticable to use horses here. 

It is now proposed by the United States Gov- 
ernment to establish an army post in the neigh- 
borhood of the diggings, with headquarters prob- 
ably at Circle City. The troops will act as po- 
lice. 

There is a marked difference between the atti- 
tude of the two governments toward their pion- 
eers. Four-fifths of the men in the interior are 
Americans, and more than two-thirds of the whole 
number have been in American territory. On the 
British side, with one-fourth the interest at stake, 
the Canadians have a picked and athletic body of 
men ready to respond in any emergency. Should 
disaster befall any man or body of men within 
the Dominion's jurisdiction, these police would 
hasten to the rescue as rapidly as it is within hu- 
man power to do, and without any question as to 
whether or not the unfortunates were citizens. 

Over the line, in Alaska, is a stretch of coun- 
try where two or three New Englands might be 



LIFE IN CAMP. 67 

thrown in at random without touching, the dig- 
nity of the United States is upheld by one man, 
a customs officer, whose duties partake of those 
of a tax coUector and a detective combined. Tlie 
only solicitude expressed is in the way of col- 
lecting taxes. Recently a United States postmas- 
ter has been added to the official life, but nat-urally 
he has nothing to do except handle mail. A 
United States commissioner is the latest prom- 
ised acquisition, although he has not yet put in a 
form.al appearance. 

The most prevalent trouble is scurvy, which 
results from scarcity of vegetables and fresh 
melts. A diet of beans, salt pork and bad ba- 
con brings trouble. Fresh meat is always scarce. 
Moose and caribou have been killed off and the 
chase would not supply a fraction of the popula- 
tion. There are graylings and other fish in the 
Yukon and they can be hooked through the ice, 
but few will stand out in the middle of a river 
at 60 degrees below zero and with time worth 
$15 a day. Last winter a quarter of beef was 
sledded into Circle City with dogs. It was view- 
ed with wonder at the store for a while and then 
raffled off for $400 for the benefit of a projected 
miners' hospital. This spring an enterprising 



68 KLONDIKE. 

Juneau man drove forty head of cattle in from 
the coast — 800 miles — and beef went at 50 and 
then at 70 cents a pound. If anybody gets sick 
there are patent medicines in the stores, and four 
or five doctors vv-ho diagnose a patient's claim 
before presenting the bill. 

Winter in the Yukon Basin is not altogether 
an unbearable season. The thermometer often 
falls to 70 and even 80 degrees below zero, but 
there is neither wind nor moisture, and the ex- 
treme cold is not then realized. When working 
out of doors a miner wears a thermometer as he 
wears a watch. He consults it every now and 
then for prudence's sake, and when the mercury 
freezes he knows that it is time to go in. 

Most miners adopt the native dress of skin 
trousers and parka. The best of these shirt-like 
garments are brought over from Siberia, and 
find ready sale at $25. 

There are two kinds of boots, the water boot, 
made of seal and walrus skins, and the dry wea- 
ther or winter boot, made in all sorts of fashions, 
some with picturesque fur trimming. The boots 
as a rule are the handiwork of the coast Indians. 
They range in price from $2 to $5 a pair. Trou- 
sers are made of Siberian fawn skin and the skin 



LIFE IN CAMP. 69 

of the marmot or ground squirrel. The parka 
or upper garment is usually made of marmot 
skins and trimmed with wolverine around the 
hood and lower edge. These parkas are some- 
times very elaborate, with hair six inches in 
length hanging from the hood to protect the 
face, or made of fawn skins and trimmed with 
the fur of the white wolf. These elaborate par- 
kas are usually worn by the women and differ 
in shape somewhat from those worn by the men. 
They are sometimes beautifully embroidered 
with colored skins and ornamented with otter's 
fur and dyed feather^, and they have been known 
to cost as high as $ioo apiece. Flannels are 
worn underneath and the dress is described by 
those who have worn it as weighing less than 
the ordinary clothes of a country where the ther- 
mometer only falls to zero. 

Women who have drifted in from the coast 
received an odd rebuke from Captain Constan- 
tine, of the Territorial police. The women nat- 
urally put on bloomers in coming over the 
mountains, and when they got on the other side 
they continued to wear bloomers altogether. 
Bloomers were more than Captain Constantine 
would stand, and he gave orders that if the bloo- 
mers did not go the wearers would. 



70 KLONDIKE. 

Help is scarce. Indians who cannot speak 
either EngHsh or Chinook receive $60 per 
month and all the tobacco they can use. These 
are willing to help, but with the judgment of 
children. Every white man that will act as boss 
of a gang is pressed into service. 

Gold dust and nuggets take the place of cur- 
rency in the new diggings and throughout the 
Yukon Basin. There is little money in circula- 
tion. Every man carries a pair of gold scales, 
and people learn to make change as quickly as 
with coin. A hair cut costs 75 cents in gold dust, 
a glass of whisky 50 cents, and d-uring the winter 
season, when the thermometer ranges between 
zero and 70 degrees below, whisky is sometimes 
sold in solid blocks. The established value of 
gold dust is $17 an ounce. Nuggets of one and 
two ounces are by no means uncommon. 

The principal sport with mining men is found 
around the gambling table. There they gather 
after nightfall and play until the late hours in 
the morning. They have some big games, too. 
It sometimes costs as much as fifty dollars to 
draw a card. A game with $2000 as stakes is 
an ordinary event. But with all that there has 
not been any decided trouble. If a man is fussy 



LIFE IN CAMP. 71 

and' quarrelsome, he is quietly told to get out of 
the game, and that is the end of it. 

Drinks are 50 cents, and returned miners say 
that when they left some of the saloons were tak- 
ing in $1000 to $2000 a day. 

Whisky will be plentiful hereafter, even if food 
is not. One trader has secured a permit to send 
in 2000 gallons of liquor. 

The Alaska Commercial Company and the 
Northwestern Transportation and Trading Com- 
pany have each received permission to ship across 
the border 5000 gallons. 

Many people have an idea that Dawson City 
is completely isolated and can communicate with 
the outside world only once in twelve months. 
That is a mistake. Circle City, only a few miles 
away, has a mail once each month, and there the 
Dawson City men have their mail addressed. It 
is true the cost is pretty high, one dollar a letter 
and two dollars for a paper; yet by that expendi- 
ture of money they are able to keep in direct com- 
munication with their friends on the outside. 

The camp is at present without any public in- 
stitutions, b«t by next season they will have a 
church, a music hall, a school house and a hos- 
pital. This last institution will be under the di- 



72 KLONDIKE. 

rect control of the Sisters of Mercy, who have 
already been stationed for a long time at Citcle 
City and Forty Mile Camp. Nearly a score of 
children were in Dawson City when the last party 
left, and Joseph Ladue, who owns the town site, 
donated a lot and one hundred dollars for a 
school. No one can buy anything on credit in 
Dawson. It is spot cash for every one, and pay- 
ment is always gold dust. Very few have any 
regular money. 

The rqosquito is an almost intolerable pest. 
In the Yukon region he is so small that the finest 
netting cannot keep him out, but his voracity is 
seemingly boundless. 

During the summer this pest gives the popula- 
tion no rest. The deepest canon and the loftiest 
mountain top, the open ground or the thickest 
forest being equally infested. The only relief, if 
it can be called relief, is when the winds blow 
the insects to less windy altitudes; but it is not 
an every day occurrence for the wind to blow. 
Lieutenant Schwatka, in his account of his trip 
to Alaska, says that bears under stress of hunger 
sometimes come down to the river in mosquito 
season and are attacked by swarms of insects, 
which sting them about the eyes so that they go 
blind and die of starvation. 



LIFE IN CAMP. 73 

There is one side of the Klondike picture 
which has been kept in the background, bat 
about which whispers are beginning to be heard. 
It is a picture of suffering and starvation. One 
of the returned fortune makers is quoted as say- 
ing: 

"You would find it easier to believe the most 
wonderful yarns I could tell you of the wealth 
of the country than some of the hardships I have 
known many men to undergo. Men can suffer 
a great deal and almost forget it if they eventual- 
ly become rich, but for every man who has re- 
turned with a sack of dust there are now one 
hundred poor devils stranded and starving in 
that country. 

''When I say starving I mean it literally. It 
seems incredible that a man would see another 
— his neighbor, at that — slowly dying by inches 
for want of food and deliberately refuse him a 
pound of bacon or pint of beans, yet that thing 
is happening every day, and God only knows 
how many frozen corpses will make food for 
wolves on Klondike this winter. When I left 
there was not enough food in the country to sup- 
ply those already there, and as boats cannot take 
in much more before the river freezes, how are 



74 KLONDIKE. 

hundreds now on their way there to exist? It 
is not that men are selfish or avaricious, but few 
of the old miners have more than enough to keep 
them through the winter, and it is only a ques- 
tion of preserving their own lives or those of 
others." 

It is likely to be as bad next winter. The 
united efforts of the Alaska Commercial Com- 
pany and the North American Transportation 
and Trading Company cannot transport over 
4500 tons of freight up the river this season, and 
not until next February can stufif be freighted 
over from Dyea, Juneau and other points down 
along the southern coast. Prices for food and 
other supplies were almost beyond belief last 
winter. Flour was $120 a hundred weight at 
one time, and beef from $1 to $2 a pound. Moose 
hams sold for about $30, or $2 a pound. Ordi- 
nary shovels for digging brought $17 and $18 
apiece. A few crates of eggs were brought in 
about March i by pack horses, and these sold 
readily for $3 to $5 a dozen. They were not 
fresh by any means. 

Wages, however, were proportional; $2 per 
hour were common wages and even in the sum- 
mer a man can command $1.50 per hour, or 
from $15 to $20 a day. 



LIFE IN CAMP. 75 

A new arrival at Dawson City, writing to his 
brother, says: 

"This is a great camp, and a conservative es- 
timate of its richness sounds Hke exaggeration. 
I have been here now twelve days and cannot 
get a hold of anything. I cannot even buy a 
foot of ground in the town, not to mention the 
diggings, values are so extremely high. Every 
foot of ground in this district is claimed, and 
there are hundreds of prospectors in the adjacent 
country looking for other rich ground. The 
gravel must be very rich in gold or nobody 
wants it. From the amount of gold dust and 
nuggets I have seen in Klondike, and the mad 
hunt for it, the district must be all they claim 
for it." 

The mines of the Yukon are of a class by 
themselves, and it is necessary to follow new 
methods for getting the gold. To begin with, 
the ground is frozen. From the roots of the 
moss, which is often a foot thick, to the greatest 
depth that ever has been reached the ground is 
as hard as a bone. The gold is found in a cer- 
tain drift of gravel, which lies at varying depths, 
often as far down as twenty feet. Only that por- 
tion of the gravel just above hard pan — by which 



76 KLONDIKE. 

is usually meant clay — carries gold in any quan- 
tity, and in favored localities this particular 
gravel is extraordinarily rich. 

As in nearly all placer mines, the low^ pla:.?s 
of what has formerly been the bed of the creek 
are the richest, the deposits decreasing toward 
the outer edges. 

The size of a claim is fixed by agreement 
among the miners of any particular locality. Tt 
is a section of the creek of a certain length — 
sometimes 200 feet, sometimes 500 — and it ex- 
tends from rim to rim in width. The reason of 
this variableness in the size of the claims on the 
different creeks is that on some a greater length 
is required to make them worth a man's while to 
work them. The paying deposits may be scat- 
tered so a man could make wages only by work- 
ing here and there over a large territory. Of 
course, the conditions surrounding the first dis- 
covery made on a creek are the basis for fixing 
the size of a claim on that stream. The discov- 
erer of a new field is allowed two claims, while 
all others are permitted to take but one at a time. 
However, when a locater has worked out his as- 
sessment of a few days' work he is at liberty to 
take another. When a sufficient number of men 



LIFE IN CAMP. 77 

arrive on a new creek to make it impracticable 
to work together in harmony without organiza- 
tion, they hold a meeting and elect one of their 
number as a register or clerk, and thereafter a 
record is made of all locations and all transfers, 
for which a small fee is charged. 

In prospecting the usual method is followed, 
i. e., sinking holes to bed rock across the stream 
and testing the dirt until the pay streak is found. 

Having located his claim, the miner scrapes 
ofif as much moss as he can, and, turning a 
stream of water on to the frozen ground, grad- 
ually thaws, scrapes and digs his ditch. The 
gold lies at bed rock, fifteen to twenty feet below 
the surface. A drainage ditch must then be dug, 
a dam built and sluice boxes placed. 

Winter mining has been experimented with 
to some extent. Work cannot be started until 
the cold weather is settled beyond the possibility 
of a surface thaw, nor can it be continued beyond 
the first promise of spring. A fire is built and 
kept burning until the ground beneath is thawed 
to bed rock, after which the drift is removed, 
leaving a hole several feet wide. By banking 
the fires against the side of the hole every night 
and removing the soft earth next morning, a 



78 KLONDIKE. 

tunnel is formed. A foot and a half a day is as 
much as the greatest industry can accomplish, 
but that amounts to 150 feet in the season. The 
pay dirt is piled up and is not washed until the 
following spring. 



CHAPTER V. 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 

Professor N. S. Shaler, who is perhaps the 
best living American authority on geology, has 
been telling his classes at Harvard for the last 
twenty years that the coming great discoveries 
of gold on this continent would be in Alaska. 
The possibilities for bonanza finds among the 
Sierras, he explained, had been narrowed to a 
point where there was little opportunity except 
to develop known veins, but in the great exten- 
sion of the Rocky Mountain system to the North 
there doubtless lay the mother vein, which soon- 
er or later would come to light. 

Professor Shaler's prophecy, based on scien- 
tific deductions, has come true, and other scien- 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 79 

tists now agree with him that the Alaskan coun- 
try contains Hmitless possibiHties for the discov- 
ery of gold. 

And not the scientists alone. So hard-headed 
a pioneer as John W. Mackay, the last and great- 
est of the bonanza kings, who went into the Cal- 
ifornia gold fields and dug out a fabulous for- 
tune, which has been growing ever since, ex- 
presses his belief in the reports of the marvelous 
richness of the newly-discovered fields. 

"I have no reason to doubt them," he says. 
*'I have had great confidence in tne mining pos- 
sibilities in British Columbia and Alaska — have 
always believed that those frozen, almost inac- 
cessible regions contain heavy deposits of pre- 
cious metals. Some enormous 'finds' of gold 
have undoubtedly been made there, and yet we 
know little or nothing of the possibilities of the 
country. Think of Williams' Creek, for instance, 
in the Caribou region in British Columbia. As 
long ago as i860 something like fifty millions of 
gold were taken out. It was placer mining there, 
just the same as the Klondike." 

Mr. Mackay believes that in time modern min- 
ing methods will be carried up into the Yukon 
country, and that all parts of the country will be 



80 KLONDIKE. 

opened. "Capital," he says, "will always go 
where there is a chance for legitimate investment, 
and transportation facilities will increase as rap- 
idly as the travelers." 

Mr. Mackay thinks the excitement over the 
discoveries may increase. "I see in it," he says, 
"something like the excitement of the early fifties 
over the gold discoveries of the Pacific coast re- 
gion. The reports of rich individual finds are 
likely to continue, and the arrival of every ship 
loaded with fortunate gold hunters will stimu- 
late the imagination, hopes and desires of the 
would-be gold hunters. We hear nothing of the 
failures. One man who is lucky is more talked 
about than a thousand who fail." 

Mr. Mackay says that his experience in Cali- 
fornia was that about one man in ten used to get 
on, and by "getting on" he means not becoming 
a millionaire, but making a living and a little 
more. 

R. E. Preston, the Director of the United 
States Mint, has become convinced of the great 
possibilities in the Klondike region. While he 
thinks it is as yet too early to hail the Klondike 
as a new Eldorado, he says the history of gold 
production in Alaska hitherto would prepare 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 81 

the mind for the acceptance of a belief in the 
HkeHhood of further gold discoveries in that re- 
gion or its proximity. 

''The gold product of Alaska thus far," he says, 
"has been remarkable rather for its regularity 
than its amount, and is therefore more favorable 
to the permanency of development of the mineral 
resources than if it were subject to violent fluc- 
tuation. 

"Nature seems to have sprinkled Alaska and 
all Asiatic Russia with gold. The latter region 
sends annually over $25,000,000 to the mint at 
St. Petersburg. The production of gold there is 
such that the annual output of the Russian Em- 
pire would, it is claimed, exceed $50,000,000 
were it not for the obstacles put in the way of 
human industry by an inclement climate and an 
inhospitable soil." 

Dr. W. H. Dall, of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion at Washington, who has for years been re- 
garded as the highest authority on the Alaskan 
country and who is a geologist of note, says he 
has no doubt of the truth of the stories told of 
the richness of the Yukon soil. 

"The gold-bearing belt of Northwestern 
America," he says, "contains all the gold fields 
6 



82 KLONDIKE. 

extending into British Columbia and what is 
known as the Northwest Territories and Alaska. 
The Yukon really runs along in that belt for 500 
or 600 miles. The bed of the main river is in 
the valley. The yellow metal is not found in 
paying quantities in the main river, but in the 
small streams which cut through the mountains 
on either side. Mud and mineral matter are car- 
ried into the main river, while the gold is left on 
the rough bottom of these side streams. In most 
cases the gold lies at the bottom of thick gravel 
deposits. The gold is covered with frozen gravel 
in the winter. During the summer until the 
snow is all melted, the surface is covered with 
muddy torrents. When summer is over and the 
springs begin to freeze, the streams dry up. At 
the approach of winter, in order to get at the 
gold the miners find it necessary to dig into the 
gravel formation." 

George Frederick Wright, professor of geol- 
ogy at Oberlin College, thinks that the "mother 
lode" may be looked for successfully in Alaska. 
In his opinion it exists somewhere up the 
streams on which the placer mines are found. 
The source of the Klondike gold, he says, is 
from the south, and the gold was doubtless 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 83 

transported by glacier action. The Klondike re- 
gion is on the north side of the St. Elias Alps, 
and the glaciers flowed both north and south 
from these summits. 

"Placer mines," says Professor Wright, "orig- 
inate in the disintegration of gold-bearing quartz 
veins, or mass like that at Juneau. Under sub- 
aerial agencies these become dissolved. Then 
the glaciers transport the material as far as they 
go, when the floods of water carry it on still fur- 
ther. Gold, being heavier than the other ma- 
terials associated with it, lodges in the crevices 
or in the rough places at the bottom of the 
streams. So to speak, nature has stamped and 
Spanned' the gravel first and prepared the way 
for man to finish the work. The amount of gold 
found in the placer mines is evidence not so 
much, perhaps, of a very rich vein as of the dis- 
integration of a very large vein." 

"What the prospectors have found points to 
more. The unexplored region is immense. The 
mountains to the south are young, havmg been 
elevated very much since the climax of the gla- 
cial period. With these discoveries and the suc- 
cess in introducing reindeer, Alaska bids fair to 
support a population eventually of several mil- 
lions." 



84 KLONDIKE. 

William Van Slooten, an eminent mining en- 
gineer and metallurgist, sees in the reports from 
the Klondike indications of a more extraordi- 
nary deposit of gold than that of California. He 
says : 

"No such specifically large amounts of gold 
vere taken out by individuals during any similar 
period of California gold hunting. Two months 
of work in the water has realized more than any 
six months heretofore known in the history of 
gold mining. 

"We ha-d long been aware that there was gold 
in the Yukon basin, but the total output for the 
last ten years before the Klondike developm.ents 
amounted to not more than a million dollars' 
worth at the utmost. Now, within two months, 
five millions have been taken out of the Klon- 
dike regions. It took the first eight months of 
work in California to pan out that amount under 
infinitely more favorable conditions of climate 
and weather. That is a straw worth noting." 

The latest and therefore the most important 
official investigation of the gold fields is that 
conducted under the auspices of the United 
States Geological Survey in i8g6 by J. Edward 
Spurr, accompanied by two geologic assistants. 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 86 

The expedition was sent out in accordance with 
an appropriation by Congress of $5000 for the 
investigation of the coal and gold resources of 
Alaska. A like appropriation for the year be- 
fore resulted in the expedition headed by Dr. 
George F. Becker, which investigated the gold 
fields of Southern Alaska. Mr. Spurr's party 
crossed the Chilkoot Pass about the middle of 
June and passed down the Yukon in a small, 
roughly-built boat to the crossing of Forty-Mile 
Creek. A summary of his report was submitted 
to Congress by the director of the Geological 
Survey through the Secretary of the Interior 
February 2, 1897. Mr. Spurr's party and Dr. 
Becker's both took numerous photographs along 
the routes they traversed. It appears from Mr. 
Spurr's report that the gold belt is likely to be 
found running in a direction a little west of north- 
west. 

Running in a direction a little west of north- 
west through the territory examined is a broad, 
continuous belt of highly altered rocks. To the 
east this belt is known to be continuous for 100 
miles or more in British territory. The rocks 
constituting this belt are mostly crystalline 
schists associated with marbles and sheared 



86 KLONDIKE. 

quartzites, indicating a sedimentary origin for a 
large part of the series. In the upper part a few- 
plant remains were found, which suggest that 
t^xis portion is probably of Devonian age. These 
altered sedimentary rocks have been shattered by 
volcanic action, and they are pierced by many 
dikes of eruptive rock. Besides the minor vol- 
canic disturbances, there have been others on a 
large scale, which have resulted in the formation 
of continuous ridges or mountain ranges. In 
this process of mountain building the sedimen- 
tary rocks have been subjected to such pressure 
and to such alteration from attendant forces that 
they have been squeezed into the condition of 
schist, and often partly or wholly crystallized, so 
that their original character has in some cases 
entirely disappeared. In summarizing, it may be 
said that the rocks of the gold belt of Alaska con- 
sist largely of sedimentary beds older than the 
Carboniferous period; that these beds have un- 
dergone extensive alteration, and have been ele- 
vated into mountain ranges and cut through by 
a variety of igneous rocks. 

Throughout these altered rocks there are 
found veins of quartz often carrying pyrite and 
gold. It appears that these quartz veins were 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 87 

formed during the disturbance attending the up- 
lift and alteration of the beds. Many of the veins 
have been cut, sheared and torn into fragments 
by the force that has transformed the sedimen- 
tary rocks into crystalHne schist; but there are 
others, containing gold, silver and copper, that 
have not been very much disturbed or broken. 
These more continuous ore-bearing zones have 
not the character of ordinary quartz veins, al- 
though they contain much silica. Instead of the 
usual white quartz veins, the ore occurs in a 
sheared and altered zone of rock and gradually 
runs out on both sides. So far as yet known, 
these continuous zones of ore are of relatively 
low grade. Concerning the veins of white quartz 
first mentioned, it is certain that most of them 
which contain gold carry it only in small quan- 
tity, and yet some few are known to be very rich 
in places, and it is extremely probable that there 
are many in which the whole of the ore is of 
comparatively high grade. 

No quartz or vein mining of any kind has yet 
been attempted in the Yukon district, mainly on 
account of the difficulty with which supplies, 
machinery and labor can be obtained; yet it is 
certain that there is a vast quantity of gold in 



88 KLONDIKE. 

these rocks, much of which could be profitably 
extracted under favorable conditions. The gen- 
eral character of the rocks and of the ore depos- 
its is extremely like that of the gold-bearing for- 
mations along the southern coast of Alaska, in 
which the Treadwell and other mines are situ- 
ated, and it is probable that the richness of the 
Yukon ocks is approximately equal to that cf 
the coast belt. It may be added that the re- 
sources of the coast belt have been only partially 
explored. 

Besides the gold found in the rocks of the Yu- 
kon district there is reason to expect paying 
quantities of other minerals. Deposits of silver- 
bearing lead have been found in a number of lo- 
calities, and copper is also a constituent of many 
of the ores. 

Since the formation of the veins and other de- 
posits of the rocks of the gold belt an enormous 
length of time has elapsed. During that time the 
forces of erosion have stripped off the overlying 
rocks and exposed the metalliferous veins at the 
surface for long periods, and the rocks of the 
gold belt, with the veins which they include, 
have crumbled and been carried away by the 
streams, to be deposited in widely different places 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 89 

as gravels, or sands, or muds. As gold is the 
heaviest of all materials found in rock, it is con- 
centrated in detritus which has been worked over 
by stream action; and the richness of the placers 
depends upon the available gold supply, the 
amount of available detritus, and the character 
of the streams which caryy this detritus away. 
In Alaska the streams have been carrying away 
the gold from the metalliferous belt for a very 
long period, so that particles of the precious 
metal are found in nearly all parts of the Terri- 
tory. It is only in the immediate vicinity of the 
gold-bearing belt, however, that the particles of 
gold are large and plentiful enough to repay 
working, under present conditions. Where a 
stream heads in the gold belt, the richest dig- 
gings are likely to be near its extreme upper 
part. 

In this upper part the current is so swift that 
the lighter material and the finer gold are car- 
ried away, leaving in many places a rich deposit 
of coarse gold overlain by coarse gravel, the peb- 
bles being so large as to hinder rapid transporta- 
tion by water. It is under such conditions that 
the diggings which are now being worked are 
found, with some unimportant exceptions. The 



90 KLONDIKE. 

rich gulches of the Forty Mile district and of the 
Birch Creek district, as well as other fields of less 
importance, all head in the gold-bearing forma- 
tion. 

A short distance below the heads of these 
gulches the stream valley broadens and the^rav- 
els contain finer gold more widely distributed. 
Along certain parts of the stream this finer gold 
is concentrated by favorable currents and is of- 
ten profitably washed, this kind of deposit com- 
ing under the head of "bar diggings." The gold 
in these more extensive gravels is often present 
in sufficient quantity to encourage the hope of 
successful extraction at some future time, when 
the work can be done more cheaply and v/ith 
suitable machinery. The extent of these gravels 
which are of possible value is very great. As the 
field of observation is extended farther and far- 
ther from the gold-bearing belt, the gold occurs 
in finer and finer condition, until it is found only 
in extremely small flakes, so light that they can 
be carried long distances by the current. 

It may be stated, therefore, as a general rule, 
that the profitable gravels are found in the vi- 
cinity of the gold bearing rock. 

The gold-bearing belt forms a range of low 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 91 

mountains, and on the flanks of these mountains, 
to the northeast and to the southwest, He various 
younger rocks which range in age from Carbon- 
iferous to very recent Tertiary, and are made up 
mostly of conglomerates, sandstones and shales,, 
with ibme volcanic material. These rocks were 
formed subsequent to the ore deposition, and 
therefore do not contain metalliferous veins. 
They have been partly derived, however, from 
detritus worn from the gold-bearing belt during 
the long period that it has been exposed to ero- 
sion, and some of them contain gold derived from 
the more ancient rocks and concentrated in the 
same way as is the gold in the present river grav- 
els. In one or two places it is certain that these 
conglomerates are really fossil placers, and this 
source of supply may eventually turn out to the 
very important. 

In the younger rocks which overlie the gold- 
bearing series there are beds of black, hard, glos- 
sy, very pure lignitic coal. An area of these 
coal-bearing strata lies very close to the gold- 
bearing district, in the northern part of the region 
examined, and as the beds of coal are often of 
considerable thickness and the coal in some of 
them leaves very little ash and contains volatile 



m KLONDIKE. 

constituents in considerable amount, it is prob- 
able that the coal deposits will become an im- 
portant factor in the development of the country. 

There were probably 2000 miners in the Yu- 
kon district during the past season, the larger 
number of whom were actually engaged in wash- 
ing gold. Probably 1500 of them were working 
in American territory, although the migration 
from one district to another is so rapid that one 
year the larger part of the population may be in 
American territory and the next year in British. 
As a rule, however, the miners prefer the Amer- 
ican side, on account of the difference in mining 
laws. These miners, with few exceptions, were 
engaged in gulch digging. The high price of 
provisions and other necessaries raises the price 
of ordinary labor in the mines to $10 per day, 
and therefore no mine which pays less than this 
to each man working can be even temporarily 
handled. Yet in spite of these difficulties there 
were probably taken out of the Yukon district 
the past season, mostly from American territory, 
approximately $1,000,000 worth of gold. 

An overland route should be surveyed and 
constructed to the interior of Alaska. All the 
best routes which can be suggested pass through 



MINING EXPERTS AND SCIENTISTS. 93 

British territory, and the co-operation of the two 
governments would be mutually beneficial, since 
the gold belt lies partly in American and partly 
in British possessions. At the present time Mr. 
Spurr thinks that the best route lies from Juneau 
by way of the Chilkat Pass overland to the Yu- 
kon at the junction with the Pelly. This trail 
is the Dalton trail which has already been de- 
scribed, and it is said to open up a good 
grazing country and no great obstacles to over- 
come. The Chilkat Pass is considerably lower 
than the Chilkoot, over which the Geological 
Survey party of 1896 passed. If a wagon road, 
or even a good horse trail, could be built as in- 
dicated, the cost of provisions and other supplies 
would be greatly reduced, many gravels now 
useless could be profitably worked, and employ- 
ment would be afforded for many men. With 
the greater development of placer diggings would 
come the development of mines in the bed rock. 
Besides the coal which has been alluded to 
there is abundant timber throughout the whole 
of the interior of Alaska, along the valleys of 
the Yukon. For four or five months in the sum- 
mer the climate is hardly to be distinguished 
from that of the northern United States — Min- 



94 KLONDIKE. 

nesota or Montana, for example, and although 
the winters are very severe, the snowfall is not 
heavy. Work could be carried on underground 
throughout the whole of the year quite as well as 
in the higher mountains of Colorado. 

The area hastily examined during the past 
season is but a portion of the great interior of 
Alaska. That gold occurs over a large extent 
of country has been determined, but the richness 
of the various veins and lodes remains to be as- 
certained by actual mining operations. Gold is 
known to occur in the great unexplored regions 
south of the Yukon, because of its presence in 
the wash of the streams, and it is quite probable 
that the Yukon gold belt extends to the north 
and west; but this can be determined only by 
further exploration. 



CHAPTER VI. 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 

There are four stages in the development of 
newly-discovered gold fields, such as those which 
have been brought to light in the Yukon Basin. 

First come the men with crude outfits and few 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 96 

resources, who, with pan and pick, gather the 
gold that Hes near the surface, washing out the 
grosser earths and leaving the precious metal 
by itself. This is placer mining in its simple 
form. 

After the sfold lying on the surface and most 
readily at hand has been exhausted a little more 
complicated process is called into play. This is 
conducted by groups or associations of miners 
who use "long Toms" and cradles. 

Hydraulic mining is the third stage. In hy- 
draulics water is brought from a long distance 
and applied to the pay dirt at great pressure in 
order to separate the gold from the dross. 

Last of all comes quartz mining, or tearing 
the gold by main force out of its beds in the rock 
beneath and separating it by means of stamps 
and pestles. 

In the Yukon region the process has not yet 
passed the first stage, and so rich are the finds 
there and so difficult the importation of machin- 
ery and supplies that it may be years before the 
last stages will become available, although the 
never-satiated thirst for gold, combined with 
modern enterprise and ingenuity, is likely to 
make even the frozen rocks of Alaska amenable 
to modern appliances. 



96 KLONDIKE. 

The history of placer mining is full of ro- 
mance. It is as old as the world itself, if any 
reliance can be placed upon the traditions that 
have come down to us from prehistoric times. 
Gold dust and nuggets came in exchange to the 
Greeks from the barbarians of the north centuries 
before the birth of Christ, and it has been sur- 
mised that the precious metal was taken out of 
the mines in Siberia and in the Ural Mountains, 
which still yield so generously. The first placer 
mining of which there is any record was carried 
on by digging the sand or gravel, mixing it 
thoroughly with water, and then pouring it over 
floating platforms covered with skins, in which 
the gold settled, while the lighter sand flowed ofif 
with the water. To this practice we doubtless 
owe the mythological story of the journey of 
Jason with his Argonauts in search of the Golden 
Fleece. The Golden Fleece, it has been sur- 
mised, was simply the skin of the sheep which 
was used to catch these golden products of the 
placer miners. And it is significant that the voy- 
age of the Argonauts was up the Black Sea or 
the Euxine into the very region of the Ural 
Mountain gold fields which have already been 
mentioned. 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 97 

In ancient times all gold was obtained by 
washing, and it has been only within recent 
years that the more difficult process of digging 
and smelting gold-bearing quartz has been re- 
sorted to. The wealth of the Indies consisted 
in golden sand, which their rivers washed down 
from the gold-bearing mountains. So it was 
with Russia, Africa, Australia and California. 
All the earlier mining, of which the records are 
so many and so fascinating, was done by placers 
in the old primitive manner. This was true espe- 
cially of California. Mr. Preston, the Director 
of the United States Mint, estimates that 75 per 
cent .of the gold production of the United States 
between 1849 ^^^ 1^65 was the result of placer 
mining. This would make a total of nearly $700,- 
000,000 for the United States alone, to say noth- 
ing of the placers who are still at work in ever- 
diminishing numbers as the ore becomes more 
difficult to find. Ore is still being washed out in 
almost all the gold districts. California, Russia 
and Alaska are examples in point. There is 
even a little placer mining in Colorado, which 
has been distinctively the home of quartz mining 
from the beginning. Mr. Preston estimates that 
between fifteen and twenty per cent, of the Cali- 
7 



98 KLONDIKE. 

fornian product is still the result of placer mining, 
and gives other percentages as follows: 

Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho, 12 
per cent; Utah, 8 per cent; New Mexico, 6 per 
cent. ; Colorado, i per cent. 

The South African mines are almost entirely 
quartz deposits. 

The beginning of placer mining in America 
may be said to date from the discovery by James 
W. Marshall of pieces of gold while digging a 
race for a saw mill at Coloma, California, Janu- 
ary 19, 1848. The announcement of his discov- 
ery was the signal for an influx or argonauts, 
and those who first landed in California had for 
implements only the pick, shovel, rocker and 
w^heelbarrow. This is about the outfit of a miner 
in the Klondike region to-day. It was only a 
few months, however, before the necessities of 
the case compelled the- introduction of what is 
known as the ''Long Tom." This is a rough 
trough ten or twelve feet in length, narrow at 
the top and wide at the lower end, set on an in- 
cline, with an iron plate on the bottom perforated 
so that the gold will drop through as it is wash- 
ed along. The "Long Tom" is really a develop- 
ment of the rocker or cradle. The rocker is 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 99 

what its name Implies. It has a hopper at one 
end, with a perforated bottom, and this stands 
over an inclined canvas stretcher. The gravel is 
thrown into the hopper, water is poured over it 
and the cradle is rocked. In this way the fine 
sand and the gold fall through the holes on to the 
canvas; the gold sticks fast and the sand rolls 
away. The most primitive of all placer mining is 
the use of the pan, which consists simply in filling 
an ordinary pan with pay dirt, stirring it about 
very slowly and carefully, pouring water over the 
gravel at the same time, so as tO' wash away the 
lighter dirt and let the heavier gold sink to the 
bottom. The process is exceedingly slow, but 
in a region like the Klondike it is so full of strik- 
ing possibilities as to be fascinating. One of 
those who have just returned from the Yukon 
describes how he found no less than a thousand 
dollars in gold dust at the bottom of one of these 
pans after washing away the dirt. 

Placer mining, which depends so greatly upon 
the effect of water, would seem to be carried on 
under difficulties in the Yukon River Basin, 
where water is frozen solid during nearly ten 
months of the year, but the invention and indus- 
try of the Americans now on the field may be 



100 KLONDIKE. 

depended upon to bring even these hard condi- 
tions under their control, and it may be even 
that the miners there will be using hydraulic 
methods before very long. 

Hydraulic mining is essentially the result of 
American inventive genius. It is the perfect de- 
velopment of the early form of placer mining as 
illustrated in the cradle and the rocker, for it 
may be said that the rocker, which is the rudest 
and simplest of all machines employed in the 
separation of gold from gravel, embodies all the 
essential features of the elaborate machinery used 
in hydraulic mining. For instance, the cradle is 
an oblong box, about four feet in length, mount- 
ed on a pair of transverse rockers and furnished 
with a set of graded sieves laid in tiers, "riffles," 
amalgamated plates and blankets, for the sepa- 
ration and arrest of the gold in its descent from 
the hopper into which the gold-bearing gravel 
is placed, to the outlet at the lower end. These 
devices are all present in hydraulic mining, but 
they are so enlarged as to be hardly recogniza- 
ble. Hydraulic mining may be said to have had 
its origin in the invention of the flume by a Con- 
necticut Yankee named Mattison in California 
three years after the discovery of gold. The 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 101 

flume was a very simple thing, consisting of a 
trough to bring water down the hillside from a 
ditch over where the mine was opened. The 
first flume gave the water a head of about forty 
feet, discharging it into a barrel, from the bot- 
tom of which depended a hose about six inches 
in diameter, made of common cowhide and end- 
ing in a tin tube about four feet long, which ta- 
pered to a point about an inch in diameter. With 
the head of Vv^ater thus obtained, a stream turned 
dirt, washed off the lighter earth and gravel, 
while the coarser gravel was washed more care- 
fully and thrown out with a sluice fork, the name 
of the stick used for that purpose. This flume 
was called a sluice. Later came the "ground 
sluice," w^hich consisted in making the bed rock 
on which the pay dirt rested perform the duty of 
sluices, while a stream of water, used for wash- 
ing away the dirt, was constantly trained against 
the bank. This water had about the same effect 
as water in any stream rubbing constantly and 
ceaselessly against its own banks where they of- 
fer resistance to the current. 

It can be easily seen how modern hydraulic 
mining grew out of these comparatively simple 
contrivances. For the cowhide hose, canvas and 



102 KLONDIKE. 

then iron were substituted, and improvements 
have been constantly going on, until now it is 
estimated that $100,000,000 is invested in ditches, 
dams and tunnels in California alone. Water 
has been carried from almost incredible distances 
around apparently insurmountable obstacles so 
as to be brought into play for the washing of 
gold out of the gravel of arid diggings. In some 
uistances from 250 to 300 miles of ditches and 
canals have been built at a cost of millions of 
dollars before water could be brought to play 
upon the gold-bearing dirt Indeed it is an ax- 
iom among miners that the richness of the gravel 
is not so important as the abundance of water, 
for with water in sufficient quantities gravel con- 
taining even insignificant percentages of gold 
can be made to pay, and through the application 
of American inventiveness it has been found pos- 
sible to wash out the deep gravel deposits on the 
high banks of the canons of streams where gold 
has been found. The beginning of this complete 
method of hydraulic mining is usually given as 
1856. It was not until more than ten years alter 
this that hydraulic mining was revolutionized by 
the introduction of the "monitor" in place of the 
^discharge pipe of earlier days. After iron began 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 10^ 

to be employed for the flumes the pipes were 
gradually enlarged and strengthened, until th_, 
measure now from fifteen to thirty inches in di- 
ameter, terminating in monitors, which discharge 
the streams of water against the rocks with such 
tremendous force as to toss about Hke pebbles 
rocks which are tons in weight. The hydraulic 
monitor in action resembles very much a piece of 
military or naval ordnance. It is united to the 
supply pipe at the breech with a water-tight 
socket joint, which enables the miner to direct 
the nozzle toward any point. In spite of the tre- 
mendous force which the hydraulic monitor rep- 
resents it can be managed almost by a child 
through a simple and effective arrangement call- 
ed the ''deflector." The deflector consists of a 
sleeve of sheet iron working on an elbow joint 
over the nozzle. To this sleeve is riveted an iron 
handle four or five feet long, by means of which 
the deflector can be moved so that the lip shall 
impinge on a column of water emerging from 
the nozzle of the monitor. An almost impercep- 
tible angle is thus formed in a column of water 
which slowly moves the monitor in the opposite 
direction, relieves the friction and straightens 
the line of discharge. With all this tremendous 



104 KLONDIKE. 

force at work it is remarkable that modern hy- 
draulic mining should have been carried to such 
a point of perfection that the amount of gold lost 
in washing is hardly worth taking account of, 
although in the old methods of placer mining it 
was estimated that from one-third to one-half of 
the fine gold was carried away in the debris. To 
illustrate the tremendous force of the water 
brought to bear upon the gold deposits through 
the hydraulic engines a correspondence, which 
was begun some years ago by Mr. Justice Field, 
of the Supreme Court, is of great interest. Jus- 
tice Field's letter follows: 

Washington, D. C, January 23, 1891. 
Hon. James G. Fair: 

Dear Sir: — Last evening I dined at General 
Schofield's and met the President (Harrison). 
There were a number of distinguished people 
present besides the President, among whom were 
the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives (Mr. Reed), Senators Sherman, 
Stanford and McMillan, Secretary of the Treasury 
Windom and Mr. McKinley and Mr. Wheeler of 
the House. During the evening the conversa- 
tion turned upon California and her wonderful 
products and mining operations. I took occasion 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 105 

to Speak of hydraulic mining and the wonderful 
manner in which the hills were torn down by hy- 
draulic machinery. I stated that I had under- 
stood you to say that such was the force of the 
water thrown through a hose when it came from 
one hundred to two hundred feet in height that 
boulders weighing half a ton could be moved by 
streams playing upon them and that the force 
was sometimes so great that it would be impossi- 
ble to cut the stream. At this statement much 
surprise was manifested, and I thought that a 
smile of incredulity passed over the features of 
the guests. Seeing this, I said that I would prove 
the facts stated in a communication to them. 

Now I write to you for the information de- 
sired. Please send me some carefully prepared 
statistics as to hydraulic mining, particularly as 
to the power exerted of a column of water thrown 
by such machinery, and as to how large boulders 
can be moved by the force of the stream and on 
the point whether it is true that the force of the 
stream is sometimes so great that it cannot be 
cut. I would be much obliged if you could give 
me full particulars in regard to these matters in 
a communication that I can use if necessary. I 
propose to send a letter to each one of the guests, 



106 KLONDIKE. 

stating the facts, and thus remove the incredulity 
which they evinced when the statement was made 
by me. I want to show that it was only the re- 
sult of want of experience in hydraulic mining, 
their situation being somewhat like that of the 
King of Siam, who was offended when an Eng- 
lish visitor told him that in his country water be- 
came so hard that he could walk on it. 

Please let me hear from it at your earliest 
convenience and believe me to be 
Very sincerely yours, 

STEPHEN J. FIELD. 

In his reply to this petition ex-Senator Fair in- 
closed the following statements. The first is from 
Louis Glass: 

"At the Spring Valley Hydraulic Gold Mine in 
Cherokee, Butte county, California, our largest 
stream was through an 8-inch diameter nozzle 
under 311 verticle feet verticle pressure, delivered 
by about a half a mile of two and a half feet diam- 
eter iron pipe; and I have seen one of these 
streams at, say, twenty feet from nozzle, move a 
boulder weighing about two tons, in a sluggish 
way, and throw a rock of five hundred pounds as 
a man would a twenty-pound weight. No man 
that ever lived could strike a bar through one of 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 107 

these streams within twenty feet of discharge, 
and a human being being struck by such a stream 
would be instantly killed, pounded into a shape- 
less mass. 

"To verify this here is an estimate of power de- 
veloped under similar circumstances : 

"Say 8-inch diameter nozzle 300 feet head, de- 
livered through iron pipe large enough to elimi- 
nate friction; 300 feet head by 433 pounds by 50 
(square of 8-inch diameter) equals 182,000 
pounds aggregate pressure, or 91 tons; but by 
want of cohesion in the column of water after 
leaving the nozzle this great force is rapidly dis- 
sipated and at about 240 feet the momentum is 
lost." 

The second statement is by Aug. J. Bowie: 

"The water which in large hydraulic mines is 
used under a pressure varying from 200 to 500 
feet, is discharged through machines styled 
'giants' or 'monitors,' with nozzles from 4 to 9 
inches in diameter. Leading up to these nozzles 
the supply pipe tapers and is lifted to keep the 
stream from twisting; hence the water as it issues 
is practically solid. 

"A 6-inch nozzle under a 200 feet pressure will 
discharge 14 cubic feet of water a second, equal 



108 KLONDIKE. 

to 326 horse-power. The same size nozzle under 
450 feet pressure will deliver 21 cubic feet of wa- 
ter per second, which would be equal to a blow of 
588,735 foot pounds per second, equivalent to 
1070 horse-power. It is absolutely impossible to 
cut such a stream with an ax or to make any 
impression' on it with any other implement. 

'The velocity of the water as it issues from the 
nozzles would in the cases mentioned vary from 
70 to 105 feet per second. The greater the dis- 
tance from the discharge nozzle the less effective 
would be the blow; but were a man to be struck 
by the stream as it comes from the pipe his body 
would have to resist a continuous force of from 
261,000 to 953,000 foot pounds per second, with 
the result that it would be cut into fragments. 
There never has been such an accident, but at 
distances of from 150 to 200 feet men have been 
killed by very much smaller streams." 

It only remains to explain that this tremendous 
stream tearing away the banks of gravel forces 
tons of gold bearing dirt through the water-tight 
open drains known as sluice boxes, which are 
made of heavy boards covered on the bottom with 
"riffles" or blocks of stone or wood, with space 
between them for the gold to settle in. 



PLACER MINING AND HYDRAULICS. 109 

As the water rushes through, the heavy gold 
settles in these little spaces over which quick- 
silver has been sprinkled, and uniting with the 
quicksilver forms an amalgam. At length the 
water is turned off with the exception of a gentle 
stream, the riffle blocks are taken up, the amal- 
gam is scooped out in buckets, and the residue is 
washed down to the next riffle and so on through 
the line of sluice boxes. When the water is turn- 
ed off the workmen take silver spoons to the nail 
holes or cracks and gather up any gold or amal- 
gam that may have been caught therein. Then 
come the various processes of breaking up the 
amalgam, rubbing it and washing it, straining it 
through canvas or chamois skin, cleaning it by a 
hot bath in water and sulphuric acid and packing 
it tightly in the retort, by means of which the 
quicksilver is all driven off and the pure gold 
made ready for the assay office. 

It may be imagined that the construction of 
reservoirs to supply water for these great hy- 
draulic monitors is something of an enterprise. 
As a matter of fact, it involves vast labor and 
expense. Suitable valleys are selected near the 
summit of a high range of mountains, huge dams 
of solid masonary are built across the gorges at 



110 KLONDIKE. 

the mouths of the valleys, and the melting snows 
on the surrounding watersheds supply such a 
reservoir with water, thus storing it until the nat- 
ural streams have dried up or run so low that 
they can no longer be of any service. The SieiTas 
with their numerous valleys almost within the 
line of perpetual snow are especially adapted to 
this kind of engineering. 

The obstacles to be surmounted before process- 
es like this can be made to apply in a country like 
the Yukon region where the thermometer goes 
to 65 degrees below zero in the winter and where 
the ice is broken up for only two months in the 
year may be imagined. But it is safe to say that 
where gold is to be found American genius will 
devise some means of bringing it out within the 
reach of civilization. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ALASKA. 

It is no unexpected revelation that the soil of 
Alaska is found to be impregnated with gold. 
Seward suspected something of the kind when he 
negotiated the purchase of the territory from the 



ALASKA. Ill 

Russian Government away back in 1867. He was 
laughed at then for what was termed Seward's 
folly, and it became quite the fashion for the 
newspapers of the day to twit the Secretary of 
State about spending millions of dollars on a 
stretch of ice and rocks. But Seward never let 
himself be troubled by the clamor, and he is on 
record in more than, one utterance as declaring 
that the Alaskan purchase would eventually be 
found to be the richest portion of the territory 
of the United States. His phop'hecy seems about 
to be fulfilled. Indeed, it has been in the process 
of fulfillment for many years, and the money 
which the United States invested in the purchase 
has already been repaid several times over. The 
value of the furs alone in the Alaskan territories 
exceeds by millions of dollars the price paid by 
Seward for everything. It has been known, too, 
for many years that the soil was rich in minerals 
of many kinds. The coal fields are as extensive 
as any in the world. Copper is known to lie 
there in vast quantities, and gold has for years 
been waiting only for the undaunted band of 
pioneers who were willing to brave the hardships 
of cold, starvation and travel in their search for 
the philosopher's stone. Gold has been taken 



112 KLONDIKE. 

from Alaska before this. The Treadwell Mines, 
on Douglas Island, have been worked since 
1885, ^^^ it is now regarded as the most perfect- 
ly equipped quartz mining establishment in the 
world. In 1895 the Director of the Mint report- 
ed that gold to the amount of $1,833733 had 
been taken from the Alaskan mine and deposited 
at the United States mints. But quartz mining is 
not placer mining. It is not the sort of thing 
that attracts the argonauts, for it requires a great 
amount of capital and is devoid of the element of 
romance which renders the gold beds of the Klon- 
dike as fascinating to the fortune-seeker as the 
Californian gold beds were to the fortune-seek- 
er of 1849. A quartz mine is a huge manufactur- 
ing establishment with all that is contained in 
that term, and the profits go to the head of the 
concern. Placer mining is the field for individual 
effort, where every man has at least a chance of 
making a fabulous fortune on his own account. 
In placer mining one may pick out the gold with 
his fingers. There is something about that pro- 
cess which appeals to the imagination. And so it 
happens that while millions of dollars have al- 
ready been taken out of the Alaskan territory, it 
remained for the splendid discoveries at Klondike 



ALASKA. 113 

to open the eyes of the world to the surpassing 
richness of the Alaskan field. 

Very few people in the United States, even 
among the more intelligent and educated class- 
es, fully appreciate the immensity of the territory 
which was added to the public domain by the 
purchase of Alaska. The total area of the United 
States proper, including the fully organized ter- 
ritories, is 2,970,000 square miles. Alaska proper 
in the mainland contains an area of 580,107 
square miles ; the islands of Alexander Archipel- 
ago, off the southeastern coast, contain 31,205 
square m.iles, and the Aleutian Islands, 6391 
square miles. In other words Alaska with its ad- 
jacent islands embraces more square miles of ter- 
ritory than twenty-one States of the Union east 
of the Mississippi River; that is all the New Eng- 
land States, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Mary- 
land, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New 
York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South 
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia 
— State that are represented in Congress by forty- 
-two Senators and two hundred Representatives. 
The numerous islands, creeks and inlets of Alas- 
ka lengthen out its coast line to 7860 miles, an 
extent greater than that of the eastern coast line 
8 



114 KLONDIKE. 

of the United States. Beginning at the southeast 
the chief creeks and bays are Cook's Inlet, Bris- 
tol Bay, Norton Sound and Kotzebue Sound; 
while, following the same order, the principal 
headlands, in addition to the extremity of the pe- 
ninsula, are Cape Newenham and Cape Roman- 
zoff in the Pacific, Cape Prince of Wales in Be- 
ring Strait, and Cape Lisbourne, Icy Cape and 
Point Barrow in the Arctic Ocean. Point Bar- 
row is in 71.23 north latitude, and is the ex- 
treme northern point of the country. The terri- 
tory has an extent of over one thousand miles 
from north to south, and the Island of Attou, the 
last of the Aleutian group, is two thousand miles 
west of Sitka. The longitude of Attou is as many 
degrees west of San Francisco as Eastport, 
Maine, is derees east. It is through the posses- 
sion of Alaska that the American citizen is able 
to boast that the sun never goes down upon the 
dominions of the United States. The Governor 
of Alaska, sitting in his office in Sitka, is very lit- 
tle farther, measuring in a straight line, from 
Eastport, Maine, than he is from the extreme 
western limit of his own jurisdiction, which ex- 
tends beyond the most easterly point of Asia, a 
distance of nearly one thousand miles, to the one 



ALASKA. 115 

hundred and ninety-third deree of west longi- 
tude, embracing an area very nearly equal to one- 
fifth of all the States and organized Territories of 
the Union With its navigable rivers, inter- 
minable forests, and lofty mountain ranges, it 
would be strange, indeed, were it not possessed 
of natural resources, the development of which 
is the only condition precedent to the growth of 
a rich and prosperous State. That these re- 
sources are even now com^paratively unknown is 
not to be wondered at in view of the long ne- 
glect of the territory by the national government. 
The extent to which this neglect has been carried 
is shown by the fact that only since the recent 
startling reports of the development of the gold 
region in the interior has the United States seen 
lit to make any provision for the administration 
of the law in that part of the territory. It is hard- 
ly a fortnight since the office of United States 
Commissioner for Western Alaska was created 
by the President, and Charles H. Isham was ap- 
pointed to the place. Mr. Isham will be stationed 
at Circle City, but whether he will find any city 
there upon h4s arrival is something of a question. 
He will be authorized to appoint deputy mar- 
shals to aid him in enforcing the laws of the 



116 KLONDIKE. 

United States. Governor Ryan, the first Assist- 
ant Secretary of the Interior, admits that the force 
employed in the civil government in Alaska is en- 
tirely inadequate if there is any appreciable in- 
crease at points remote from the towns where 
government officials are now located. 

The gold fields are away up in the Yukon, at 
the edge of the Arctic circle, hundreds of miles 
distant from Sitka and other coast towns, where 
are located the United States Marshals, United 
States Commissioners, Deputy Marshals and 
Deputy Commissioners. The active force in chc 
territory that fhas to carry on a civil government 
is small. The police force, as it may be termed, 
consists of a United Statts Marshal and eight 
Deputy Marshals, eight United States Commis- 
sioners and eight Deputy Commissioners. Of 
course, in case of trouble, the Marshal could ex- 
ercise the power of a 'high sheriff and summon 
the posse comitatus. The United States laws are 
rigidly enforced in southeastern Alaska along 
the coast and the citizens of the territory are ful- 
ly protected in the settlement, but the miners who 
push several hundred miles beyond civilization 
will have to be a law unto themselves until other 
arrangements are made for increasing the civil 



ALASKA. 117 

force of the territory. The general land office has 
recommended the establishment of two land dis- 
tricts in western Alaska and one of the officers 
will be located at Circle City. There has been the 
greatest confusion among the prospectors owing 
to the absence of facilities for proving up claims, 
and it is feared that there will be a great number 
of contentions over mineral land locations in vari- 
ous sections where the gold discoveries have been 
made. Some of the prospectors who have arrived 
in San Francisco and Seattle have endeavored to 
secure government recognition for their claims, 
only to find that the processes they had gone 
through with were valueless and that they would 
be compelled to make the whole wearisome jour- 
ney over again with witnesses who could testify 
to their occupation of the land. 

The population of Alaska is largely a matter 
of estimate. According to the latest reports it 
amounted to about 35,000. Of these about 10,000 
might be described as civilized and this number 
includes not only the whites but the Creoles and 
the Aleutians. Most of these are settled in the 
southeastern coast country, where the seat of 
government has been. The people called Creoles 
are descendants three or four generations re- 



118 KLONDIKE. 

mote, of a mixed parentage (Russian fathers and 
native mothers), but it will puzzle even the most 
learned ethnologist to find anything in their feat- 
ures or complexions by which to distinguish them 
from the race to which their fathers belonged. 
They are, to all intents and purposes, white peo- 
ple, fully as intelligent and well informed as 
would almost any other class of people have been, 
if subjected to the same wrongs and disadvan- 
tages. They, as well as the Aleuts, are civilized 
people, in the sense that the first were never in a 
condition of barbarism, while the last, if indeed 
not fully enlightened, have most certainly been re- 
claimed from their original savage state. Under 
the rule of the Russian-American Company the 
Creoles were given the same opportunities for 
acquiring an education as were afforded to pure 
blood Russian children, up to a certain age, when 
they were compelled to enter the employ of the 
company for a long term of years. The bright- 
est among the Creoles and Aleutian boys were 
carefully trained in navigation, ship building and 
the mechanical arts, while the girls were taught 
housekeeping, and thus fitted to become wives of 
the company's employes, and there are said to be 
now in the Russian army and navy officers of 



ALASKA. 119 

very considerable rank, and a good many who 
hold high positions in the civil service of the 
Empire, who are the progeny of these mixed mar- 
riages. The Aleuts are a keen, bright and natur- 
ally intelligent people, industrious and provident, 
the larger portion being educated to a greater or 
less extent in the Russian language, and that they 
are well advanced in civilization is evidenced by 
the fact that they live in comfortable houses, are 
given to finery in their dress, and are, with scarce- 
ly an exception, devout members of one of the 
Christian churches. 

The native Alaskans are a very superior race 
intellectually, as com.pared with the people gen- 
erally known as North American Indians, and 
are as a rule industrious and provident and whol- 
ly self-sustaining. That they yield readily to civ- 
ilizing influences is evidenced by the fact that 
wherever the Christian missionaries have gain- 
ed a foothold, they will be found living in neat 
comfortable homes of their own construction, and 
m.any of them earnestly intent upon bettering 
their condition, intellectually and morally. They 
are shrewd and natural-born traders, some are 
passably good carpenters, and others still are 
skillful workers in woods and metals. As fast as 



120 KLONDIKE. 

they can obtain employment from the white men 
at reasonable wages (and the most ignorant 
among them know the value of their labor) they 
abandon the chase and the fishing grounds, and 
serve their employers faithfully so long as they 
are well treated. At least a hundred are employed 
at the great mine and mill on Douglas Island, and 
as laborers and miners are far superior to the 
Chinese. 

Of course, with the influx of miners to the new 
placer diggings the population of whites will be 
greatly increased, and it is certainly not a rash 
estimate that the total population of the territory 
will be more than doubled in the next twelve 
months. So far as is known there are about 
three thousand white men now scattered over the 
gold fields, and most of these have been concen- 
trated about the Klondike region. Five thou- 
sand more are on the way, and with the opening 
up of spring they will begin to pour in upon the 
unexplored country by the thousands. With 
the rapid increase of population and the direction 
of attention to the new Eldorado there it will 
only be a short time before transportation facil- 
ities are afforded between Juneau and the gold 
fields and the way paved for establishing the be- 
ginnings of a great Commonwealth. 



ALASKA. 121 

It appears now that Juneau, situated as it is at 
the head of tidewater and at the gateway to the 
gold country, will be the most important city of 
Alaska. Indeed, it is already the metropolis of 
the Territory, although Sitka still remains the 
capital, and, owing to its age and its situation, 
will continue to be an important point. The 
population of Sitka, in the latest reports, was 
about 1 200. Juneau is destined to be the outfit- 
ting point for all miners on their way to the Yu- 
kon gold fields. It has a population of nearly 
fifteen hundred, which is bound to rapidly in- 
crease. It is more nearly than other Alaskan 
city on a par with the cities farther south. It is 
the headquarters of several steamboat Imes, has 
a city hall and court house, substantial walls, 
water works, electric lights, hotels and a large 
number of fine buildings. It is a picturesque 
city, situated at the foot of the mountains, which 
are snow-capped throughout the year and down 
which avalanches are constantly tearing. One 
or more avalanche rushes down the mountain 
side every day, and these incidents lend to life 
there an interest peculiarly its own. 

It is a singular circumstance that glaciers ap- 



122 KLONDIKE. 

proach nearer to the ocean here at Juneau than 
at any other place in the world. Indeed it is the 
only place so far as known v^here glaciers come 
near to the ocean at all, but here the approach 
is so close and the motion oceanward is so steady 
that the waters around the city are filled with 
floating icebergs, somewhat to the peril of sea- 
faring men. 

Juneau was founded in the winter of 1880 and 
six months after the discovery of gold (August 
15, 1880) by Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris. 
It went under the name of Harrisburg at first and 
afterwards was called Rockwell, but the miners 
at a meeting about a year after its foundation de- 
cided to rechristen it in honor of the discoverer 
of gold. Within a year it has become a flourish- 
ing mining town, and now it is the commercial 
centre of Alaska. It supports three weekly news- 
papers. 

The exploration of the northern coast was 
chiefly the work of the British navigators, Cook, 
Beechy and Franklin, and of the officers of the 
Hudson Bay Company. The principal river of 
Alaska is the Yukon, which rises in British 
America, and, receiving the Porcupine River at 
Fort Yukon, flows westward across the territory 



ALASKA. 123 

and falls into the Pacific Ocean to the south of 
Norton Sound. At a distance of 600 miles from 
the sea this magnificent river has a width of more 
than a mile. Its tributaries would in Europe be 
reckoned large rivers, and its volume is so great 
than ten miles out from its principal mouth the 
water is fresh. Among the other rivers of Alas- 
ka are the Copper River, the Suschitna, the Nus- 
chagak and the Kuskokwim, falling into the Pa- 
cific, and the Colville, flowing northward into the 
Arctic Ocean. A great mountain range extends 
from British Columbia, in a northwest direction, 
along the coast of Alaska, the summit being cov- 
Ired with snow and glaciers. Mount St. Elias, an 
active volcano, in 60.18 north latitude and 140.30 
west longitude, rises to the height of 14,970 feet 
above the sea. The mountain chain runs along 
the peninsula, which has given its name to the 
country, and at the w^estern extremity there are 
several volcanic cones of great elevation, while 
in the Island of Uminak, separated from the 
mainland by only a narrow strait, there are enor- 
mous volcanoes, one rising to more than 8000 
feet in height. In the interior and to the north 
the country is also mountainous, with great in- 
tervening plains. 



124 KLONDIKE. 

The northwest coast of this part of America 
was discovered and explored by a Russian expe- 
dition under Behring in 1741, and at subsequent 
periods settlements were made by the Russians 
at various places, chiefly by the prosecution of 
the fur trade. In 1799 the territory was granted 
to a Russo-American fur company by the Em- 
peror Paul VIII, and in 1839 the charter of the 
company was renewed. New Archangel, in the 
Island of Sitka, was the principal settlement, but 
the company had about forty stations. They ex- 
ported annually 25,000 skins of the seal, sea- 
otter, beaver, etc., besides about 20,000 sea-horse 
teeth. The privilege of the company expired in 
1863, and in 1867 the whole Russian possessions 
in America were ceded to the United States for a 
money payment of $7,200,000. The treaty was 
signed March 30 and ratified on June 20, 1867, 
and on October 9 following the possession of the 
country was formerly made over to a military 
force of the United States at New Archangel 
(now Sitka). Portions- of Alaska v/ere explored 
in 1859 by the employes of the Russo-American 
Telegraph Company in surveying a route for a 
line of telegraph which was destined to cross from 
America to Asia near Behring Strait — a project 



ALASKA. 125 

which was abandoned, after an expenditure of 
$3,000,000, on communication with Europe being 
secured by the Atlantic cable. 

The government of Alaska lies in a Governor, 
who is appointed by the President. It has not 
yet a full territorial form of government. 

The cHmate of the Alaskan coast regions is 
much milder, even in the higher latitudes, than 
it is in the interior, or in corresponding latitudes 
on the Atlantic coast. This is easily explained 
and understood when the natural forces produc- 
tive of this mxilder temperature are contemplated. 

The most important among them is a thermal 
current resem.bling tht Gulf Stream in the Atlan- 
tic. This current, known as the Japanese or 
Kuro Siwo, has its origin under the equator near 
the Molucca and Philippine Islands, passing 
northward along the coast of Japan, and crosses 
the Pacific to the southward of the Aleutian Is- 
lands, after throwing a branch through Bering 
Sea, in the direction of Bering Strait. The main 
current strikes the coast of British Columbia, 
v/here it divides again, one branch turning north- 
v/ard toward Sitka, and thence westward to the 
Kadiak and Shumagim Islands. 



126 KLONDIKE. 

The comparatively warm waters of these cur- 
rents affect the temperatures of the superjacent 
atmosphere, which, absorbing the latent heat, 
carries it to the coast with all its mollifying ef- 
fect. Thus the oceanic and atmospheric cur- 
rents combine in mitigating the coast climate of 
Alaska, and this process is greatly aided by the 
configuration of the extreme northwestern shores 
of the Pacific, backed as they are with an almost 
impenetrable barrier of lofty mountains, which 
holds back from the interior the warm, moist 
atmospheric currents coming in from the ocean, 
deflecting at the same time the ice-laden northern 
gale from the coast to the interior. 

To Hon. A. P. Swineford, who was Governor 
of Alaska in 1886, belongs the distinction of hav- 
ing first emphatically called the attention of the 
United States Government to the splendid possi- 
bilities of Alaskan development. In the very first 
report which he made to the Secretary of the In- 
terior in October, 1885, he declared that the nat- 
ural resources of Alaska, as yet in the infancy of 
their development, were such as might be made, 
in the near future, a most important addition to 
the aggregate wealth of the nation. 



ALASKA. 127 

"I have seen enough to convince me/' he said, 
''that no other Territory of the Union, at so early 
a period in its civil history, presented nearly so 
many or as great possibilities for the future. 
That Alaska was not supplied with local civil 
government a dozen years ago is to be deplored; 
that so-called scientists in the pay of the General 
Government have heretofore 'damned with faint 
praise,' if they did not openly condemn the coun- 
try as utterly worthless, save for its valuable fur 
trade — basing their statements on what they 
were able to see, looking at its rugged coast 
from their favorite standpoint of the Prybilov Is- 
lands — is still more to be regretted, for the rea- 
son that the tardy and at last only partially per- 
formed act of justice on the one hand was but 
the result of either the ignorant or willful mis- 
statements of those to v/hom Congress looked 
for information upon which to base any and all 
legislation affecting the rights, privileges and in- 
terests of Alaska and its people. 

"Nowhere in my home travels, from Lake Su- 
perior to the Gulf of Mexico, from Washington 
to Sitka, have I seen a more luxuriant vegetation 
than in Southeastern Alaska. I find the hardier 



128 KLONDIKE. 

vegetables all growing to maturity and enormous 
size; white turnips weighing ten pounds, cab- 
bages twenty-seven pounds, and as fine potatoes 
as can be found in any of the Eastern markets I 
found growing at Wrangell, Juneau and in Sitka. 
Wild timothy and red-top grow to a height of 
from five to seven feet, and in the vicinity of Sit- 
ka all the hay was cured during the past summer 
that will be required during the winter, and I am 
satisfied, from personal observation, that hun- 
dreds of tons more could have been harvested. 
The few cattle I have seen are sleek and in the 
best possible condition, and I unhesitatingly give 
it as my opinion that the country is well enough 
adapted to grazing purposes to render wholly 
unnecessary the importation of beef, even when 
the population of the Territory shall have grown 
far beyond the number requisite to itc admission 
as a State." 

As an indication of the difficulty Alaska has 
had in receiving recognition according to its true 
worth executive document No. 36 of the House 
of Representatives, second session, Forty-first 
Congress, may well be quoted here. It contains 
the report of a special agent of the Treasury De- 



ALASKA. 129 

partment on the subject of Alaska. From it the 
following passages are taken: 

"The price paid for the Territory, $7,200,000, 
is but a small item of its cost to the United 
States. Provided the public debt be paid within 
twenty-five years, annual interest on the purchase 
money at the rate of six per cent, would in that 
period amount to $23,701,792.14, which, added 
to the principal, would make the total cost of the 
Territory $30,901,792.14. To this sum there 
must be added the expense of the military and 
naval establishments, say $500,000 per annum, or 
$12,500,000 in twenty-five years, which is a much 
smaller estimate than can be predicted on the ex- 
penditure of the last two years, resulting in a 
grand total cost on the above basis of $43,401,- 
792.14. 

*Tn return for this expenditure we may hope 
to derive from the seal fisheries, if properly con- 
ducted, from $75,000 to $100,000, and from cus- 
toms $5000 to $10,000 per annum, a sum insuffi- 
cient to support the revenue department, includ- 
ing the present expensive cutter service attached 
to the district; nor can we look for any material 
increase of revenue for many years, except in the 
9 



130 KLONDIKE. 

event of extraordinary circumstances, such as the 
discovery of so large deposits of minerals as 
would produce an influx of population. 

/'As a financial measure it might not be the 
worst policy to abandon the Territory for the 
present, until some possible change for the bet- 
ter shall have taken place, but for political rea- 
sons this course may not be advisable." 

Notwithstanding the above calculations and 
predictions the managsment of the Seal Islands 
alone paid into the United States Treasury be- 
tween $6,000,000 and $7,000,000 in rental and 
royalties within twenty years, independent of the 
"extraordinary circumstances" referred to by 
this special agent. It is safe to assert that, since 
the system of leasing the Prybilov Island was in- 
augurated within a few weeks of the date of the 
report quoted here and up to the expiration of 
the first term of twenty years, the revenue cov- 
ered into our Treasury from Alaska has always 
exceeded the expenditures, while as a factor in 
the internal commerce of the United States, and 
especially of our Pacific coast, Alaska has as- 
sumed a position of considerable importance. 

A better understanding of the advantages de- 




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ALASKA. 131 

rived by the country at large by the purchase of 
Alaska can be obtained by perusing the sub- 
joined statement of products of the Territory 
since it came into our possession. The state- 
ment embraces only the principal articles of ex- 
port, and can be relied upon as being conserva- 
tive and within actual limits of Alaska's prod- 
ucts: 

VALUE OF PRODUCTS OF ALASKA 
FROM 1868 TO 1890. 

Furs $48,518,929 

Canned salmon 9,008,497 

Salted salmon 603,548 

Codfish 1,246,650 

Ivory 147,047 

Gold and silver 4,631,840 

Total $64,156,511 

Products of the whaling industry: 

Whale oil $2,853,351 

Whalebone 8,204,067 

Total 11,057,418 



Aggregate $75.2i3'92. 



132 KLONDIKE. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN 
ALASKA. 

This handbook would not approach completion 
if it refrained from a description of the wonderful- 
ly productive gold mines which have been work- 
ed in southeastern Alaska for the past twelve 
years, and which in 1895 contributed nearly $2,- 
000,000 to the gold supply of the world. These 
quartz mines are the most perfectly developed in 
the world, and are increasing in productiveness 
every year. The gold yield of Alaska in 1894 was 
$1,288,334. In 1895 it increased to $2,328,419. 

For 1895 the yield of the quartz mines en 
Douglas and Unga Islands alone equaled the en- 
tire product of the territory the years before, 
without counting the other mining fields which 
have been more fully developed. 

During* the year 1895, 300 stamps were drop- 
ping on Douglas Island and during the summer 
125 stamps were dropping on the mainland. 

Other outlying districts are also coming into 
prominence, mainly on Admiralty Island, upon 
which a new ten-stamp mill is now ready for run- 



QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 133 

ning, being operated by the Alaska- Willoughby 
Gold Mining Company. On Unga Island some 
very extensive and productive quartz operations 
are being carried on. 

In southeastern Alaska, so far, all the placer 
mining has been done in gravel deposits, which 
were made auriferous by the wash from quartz 
veins. 

The distinction of the first discovery of gold in 
that extensive and important mining region of 
which the town of Juneau is the centre, is shared 
by two pioneer prospectors, Richard Harris and 
Joseph Juneau. In the summer of 1880 these 
men started in a canoe from the quaint old town 
of Sitka to prospect the mainland coast, and 
about August 15 discovered gold in a stream 
which they aptly named Gold Creek. Their stock 
of provisions being nearly exhausted, they did 
not ascend the stream to its source and soon re- 
turned to Sitka, taking with them 150 pounds of 
gold quartz and 13 grains of "dust." Having se- 
cured another outfit, they hurried back to Gold 
Creek, and soon found its source in a little round 
valley inclosed by steep, glacier-capped moun- 
tains. This spot they named Silver Bow basin, af- 
ter a place of that name in Montana. On the 



134 KLONDIKE. 

mountain slopes, encircling the basin, gravel was 
found worth from 15 to 30 cents a pan, and quartz 
that seemed to have been splashed wdth gold. 
October 4 Juneau and Harris, with the aid of 
three natives, located their choice of the placer 
ground, and within a month located 18 quartz 
•claims, organized Harris mining district, adopt- 
ed local rules for the new district, and staked oif 
a town site near the mouth of Gold Creek, which 
they named Harrisburg. They then returned to 
Sitka wath 960 pounds of gold ore, worth $14,000. 
This golden cargo crazed the quiet town, and a 
number of adventurous fellows, procuring boats, 
canoes, or steam launches, rushed off to the new 
4liggings with Juneau and Harris. The season 
was too far advanced for prospecting in the basin, 
so log cabins were built on the site staked off by 
the founders of the camp. During the winter of 
1880-1881 the town of Harrisburg flourished; five 
general merchandise stores were established and 
saloons appeared so quickly as to seem sponta- 
neous; miners and frontiersmen generally flock- 
ed in from Wrangell and British Columbia, add all 
waited impatiently for spring. At a miners' meet- 
ing in February, 188 1, the town name was 
changed to Rockwell, in honor of Lieutenant 



QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 135 

Rockwell, United States Navy, and the following 
November, at another meeting, the place was re- 
christened J-uneau, in honor of Joseph Juneau. 
On the 27th of January John Pryor, Antonc 
Marx, Frank Berry, James Rosewald and Wil- 
liam Mehan discovered placer and quartz on the 
beach of Douglas Island, four miles from the 
town. They began working the placers early in 
March, w^ashing out 27 ounces of gold in the first 
three days' work. 

The first shipment of gold from the new camp 
was taken from this claim and amounted to 84 
ounces. The claim, still known as Ready Bullion, 
yielded about $12,000 in 1881, $3000 in 1882 and 
in 1884 was sold to John Treadwell. These are 
the beginnings of the famous Treadwell mines, 
from which enough ore has been taken out in the 
last ten years to pay the purchase of Alaska and 
more. 

An expedition of great value in the exploration 
of the gold resources of southern Alaska was un- 
dertaken under the auspices of the United States 
Geological Survey in 1895, under the direction <i 
Dr. George F. Becker. Dr. Becker was assisted by 
Mr. C. W. Purington, who devoted himself espe- 
cially to the examination of the gold deposits, 



136 KLONDIKE. 

and associated with him was Dr, W. H. Dall, the 
Alaskan authority, who had immediate charge 
of an examination of the coal resources. 

The instructions to the party were to examine 
the gold and coal deposits in the vicinity of the 
shore line and islands along the coast of the ter- 
ritory, and not to attempt to penetrate into the 
interior. 

Dr. Becker and Mr. Purington examined the 
Treadwell mine, on Douglas Island, and found 
that the mine was in slates of sedimentary origin, 
probably of Triassic age, and that it had been 
penetrated by a heavy dike of diorite or tonalite 
and by two other intrusive masses. The last of 
these is a rock of basaltic character, and its erup- 
tion seems to have occurred at the same time as 
the mineralization. Both the diorite and the slate 
were ruptured along a zone which is at some 
points several hundred feet in width, and the in- 
terstitial spaces have been filled with ore. In the 
diorite the masses were in great part reduced to 
fragments, and these have been decomposed and 
impregnated. In the slate the fractures mostly 
followed the cleavage, and the deposit there as- 
sumes the form of a "stringer lead." The claims 
to the southward of the Treadwell are controlled 



QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 137 

by the same company, and are profitable, but the 
next claim to the northward is said to be too poor 
to pay. The ore of Treadwell averages only $2.50 
to $3 per ton, but, owing to the enormous scale 
of the workings, there is a large prfit in working 
it. 

The Silver Bow basin hes about three miles 
north of east of Juneau. A considerable number 
of small veins of rather rich ore occur in the 
southern side of the basin. The basin was for- 
merly occupied by a large glacier. After the re- 
treat of the glacier the basin was occupied by a 
lake, and the lake beds are successfully worked 
for gold by the hydrauhc process. 

Sheep Creek basin is separated from Silver 
Bow basin by a divide, and the same series of 
quartz veins extend into it. About 55 miles to 
the southeast of Juneau, at Sumdum, there is a 
very promising vein which is yielding good bul- 
lion, although the property is only just being de- 
veloped. At Seward City, near Berners Bay, 
about 50 miles north of Juneau, there are also 
veins which are extremely rich at some points 
and are yielding gold. On Admiralty Island, 
about 30 miles from Juneau, there are promising 
veins, on which it is expected that mining will 



138 KLONDIKE. 

be commenced during the summer of 1896. Near 
Sitka, especially along Silver Bay and in the 
country to the southeast of it, there are numer- 
ous veins, some of which have yielded a little 
gold. The conditions do not warrant an opinion 
as to their future. 

At Yakutat Bay, just to the eastward of Mount 
St. Elias, there has been some beach mining, as 
there has also been along the west shore of Ka- 
diak Island. The ease of working and the unlim- 
ited supply of sand make beach mining on the 
western coast of North America very attractive, 
but the capriciousness of the distribution of pay 
streaks and the difficulty of saving the gold com- 
monly rob such undertakings of success. The 
amount of gold which occurs in this manner in 
the sand is enormous, but as yet there are few if 
any reliable records of large profits having been 
made from beach mines, either in Alaska or to the 
southward. 

On Kadiak Island, in Uyak Bay, there are sev- 
eral promising-looking gold-quartz veins, 2 feet 
or so in thickness, upon which prospecting is now 
going on. Stream gravels are also being worked 
on Turn-again Arm, at the head of Cook Inlet. 
The only successful working was on Bear Creek, 



QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 139 

but the capriciousness of the distribution of pay 
Becker could obtain the average results were not 
more than $5 per day per man . A later report, 
received after Dr. Becker's visit, is that richer 
gravel has been discovered near the head of Turn- 
again Arm. 

The island of Unga is in the Shumagin Archi- 
pelago, about a thousand miles south of west 
from Sitka. Near Delaroff Bay, on this island, 
is the Apollo Consolidated mine, which is now 
yielding at the rates of over $300,000 a year. The 
ore occurs in interstitial spaces in a crushed zone 
of andesite. It averages between $8 and $9 per 
ton, much of the gold being free, though heavy 
bunches of sulphurets are of frequent occurrence 
in it. 

Although auriferous quartz has been found on 
the island of Unalaska, nothing like a mine has 
yet been discovered. 

Speaking of the gold mines of Southeastern 
Alaska as early as 1886 Governor Swineford 
said: 

"The extensive reduction works on Douglas 
Island, opposite Juneau, are, perhaps, the most 
complete of any to be found on the Pacific slope. 



140 KLONDIKE. 

They are supplied with twenty-four batteries of 
five stamps each, with all the necessary machin- 
ery and appliances for the extraction of the free 
eold, and chlorination works for the treatment 
of the sulphurets. During July and August the 
mill, running to not much more than half its full 
capacity, turned out $115,000 in gold bullion, 
while the accumulated sulphurets (concentrates) 
awaiting treatment were shov/n by frequent as- 
says to be worth not less than $100,000 more. 

"Since the middle of September the mill has 
been running to its full capacity, and a personal 
examination of the mine from which it is sup- 
plied with ore leads me to confidently expect 
very much better results from this time forward. 
The mine itself is located in what appears to be 
simply a great mountain of gold-bearing quartz. 
Into this immense repository of the precious 
metal a tunnel has ben driven to a length of near- 
ly, if not quite, 500 feet, as nearly as I could 
judge, at right angles with the trend of the ledge, 
and on a level at least 250 feet below the outcrop 
on which the minjsrs were at work breaking and 
milling the rock down through a v/inze to the 
tram-cars in the tunnel. A careful examination 



QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 141 

of the tunnel reveals well defined foot and hang- 
ing walls, very nearly 400 feet apart, between 
which nothing but the same kind of rock as that 
being milled at the time of my visit can be seen 
on either side. The rock is what is called "low 
grade milling," carrying free gold and sulphu- 
rets, and yields an average, I am told, of about 
$8 per ton. No selection of the rock is neces- 
sary, everything from between the walls going 
to the stamps. It is truly a phenomenal deposit 
and the mine one that promises to figure more 
largely in the mining history of the world than 
any other of which we have any record. 

"In the rear of Juneau two or three miles, on 
the mainland, is Silver Bow Basin, where some 
rich placer mines are being worked, but thus far 
I have not been afforded an opportunity to visit 
or examine them. The value of the product of 
these mines, however, has been estimated by well- 
posted persons at not less than $150,000 in 1884, 
and the opinion prevails that the shipment of 
"dust" will be much larger the present year. I 
noticed while in Juneau that most of the traders 
were buying gold dust, and was told that many 
of the miners in the basin were doing well, and 
some of them amassing comfortable fortunes. 



142 KLONDIKE. 

"In the absence of other discoveries it would 
yet be hardly probable that the gold-bearing 
ledges and basins of the Territory should be con- 
fined to this one particular locality. Fortunately 
there is abundant evidence going to show that 
the developments at Juneau are but the precur- 
sors of others yet in abeyance, and which await 
only the application of similar effort in the way 
of the expenditure of labor and capital to make 
them profitably productive. In the near vicinity 
of Sitka there are promising ledges, one of which 
has been wrought for years in a desultory way 
by a single prospector, who, doing only the as- 
sessment work required by the mining law, has 
yet been able to support himself and family from 
the proceeds extracted from his incipient mine 
by the most primitive appliances — principally an 
ordinary hand pestle, mortar and pan. While 
there can be little doubt of the existence of gold 
along the coast range of mountains, and on many 
of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago, the 
geological formation and general characteristics 
of which appear to be identical with those of the 
mainland, the work of development will neces- 
sarily proceed slowly as compared to the prog- 



QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 143 

ress made in the other mining districts of the 
United States, owing to the difficinties which be- 
set the path of the prospector, unless, indeed, con- 
venient access to tidewater may wholly or in 
part be found to counterbalance the disadvan- 
tages of high and precipitous mountains, cov- 
ered with a dense growth of timber, underbrush 
and fallen trees, with two or three feet of inter- 
twining, closely woven vines and moss covering 
the ground itself, and which will obstruct and 
render more than usually difficult the work of 
exploration, though not necessarily an obstruc- 
tion in the way of subsequent mining operations. 
The difficulties mentioned will, however, be par- 
tially obviated by the first discovery in any par- 
ticular locality, which will serve as a starting 
point from which to prosecute explorations W'th 
a better knowledge of the formation, and, con- 
sequently, with much less labor and expense. In 
addition to the compensating advantage of con- 
tiguity to navigable waters there is unlimited 
water power for the operation of mining and 
milling machinery and an abundance of timber 
for all purposes." 



144 KLONDIKE. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 

Although the eyes of the world are only just be- 
ginning to be opened to the surpassing interest 
of the immense area of country watered by the 
Yukon River, there are men living to whom the 
marvelous features of that great stretch of country 
are no new thing. The highest a-uthority on all 
questions pertaining to the Yukon is Dr. W. H. 
Dall, of the Smithonian Institution, in Washing- 
ton, who more than a generation ago went up in- 
to that country with the Western Union expedi- 
tion sent out to survey for the proposed Russian- 
American telegraph line and who has made sever- 
al journeys to the same region since. Dr. Dall 
embodied the observations of his early visits in 
a book published in 1870, entitled, "Alaska and 
its Resources," which is easily the most compre- 
hensive work issued on the general subject of our 
Alaskan possessions. No subsequent explorers 
have succeeded in fully replacing it, although the 
latest census reports are very complete, consid- 
ering the difficulties of exploration. 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 145 

What the Amazon is to South America, the 
Mississippi to the central portion of the United 
States, the Yukon is to Alaska. It is a great in- 
land highway, which will make it possible for the 
explorer to penetrate the mysterious fastness of 
that still unknown region. The Yukon has its 
source in the Rocky Mountains of British Colum- 
bia, and the Coast Range Mountains of southeast- 
ern Alaska, about 125 miles from the city of Ju- 
neau, which is the present metropolis of Alaska. 
But it is only known as the Yukon River at the 
point where the Pelly River, the branch that 
heads in British Columbia, meets with the 
Lewis River, which heads in southeastern 
Alaska. This point of confluence is at 
Fort Selkirk, in the Northwest Territory, 
about 125 miles southeast of the Klondike. 
The Yukon proper is 2044 ^li^cs in length From 
Fort Selkirk it flows northwest 400 miles just 
touching the Arctic circle; thence southward for a 
distance of 1600 miles, where it empties into Be- 
ring Sea. It drains more than 600,000 miles square 
of territory, and discharges one-third more water 
into Bering Sea than does the Mississippi into 
the Gulf of Mexico. At its mouth it is sixty miles 
wide. About 1500 miles inland it widens out 
10 



146 KLONDIKE. 

from one to ten miles. A thousand islands send 
the channel in as many different directions. Only 
natives who are thoronghly familiar with the river 
are trusted with the piloting of boats up the 
' stream during the season of low water. 

Even at the season of high water it is still so 
shallow as not to be navigable anywhere by sea- 
going vessels, but only by fiat-bottomed boats 
with a carrying capacity of four to five hundred 
tons. 

The Yukon River is absolutely closed to trav- 
el save during the summer months. In the win- 
ter all approaches are locked with impenetrable 
ice and the summer lasts only from ten to twelve 
weeks, from about the middle of June to the early 
part of September. Then an unending panorama 
of extraordinary picturesqueness is imfolded to 
the voyager. The banks are fringed with flowers 
carpeted with the all pervading moss or tundra. 
Birds, countless in numbers and of infinite va- 
riety of plumage, sing out a welcome from every 
tree top. Pitch your tent where you will be m 
midsummer, a bed of roses, a clump of poppies 
and a bunch of blue bells will adorn your camp- 
ing. But high above this paradise of almost trop- 
ical exuberance, giant glaciers sleep in the sum- 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 147 

mit of the mountain wall, which rises up from a 
bed of roses, has disappeared before icy breath of 
the Winter King, which sends the thermometer 
down to eighty degrees below the freezing point. 

The Lewis River is the best known of the trib- 
utaries to the Yukon, having been used for the 
past twelve years as the highway from South- 
eastern Alaska to the gold diggings on the Yu- 
kon. Its length from Lake Lindeman, one of 
its chief sources, to the junction with the Felly 
is about 375 miles, and it lies entirely in British 
territory, with the exception of a few miles of the 
lake at its head. 

The Pelly River takes its rise about Dease 
Lake, near the headwaters of the Stkine River, 
with a length of some 500 miles before joining 
the Lewis to form the Yukon River. The union 
of these two streams forms a river varying from 
three-quarters of a mile to a mile in width. For 
many miles on the northern bank is a solid wall 
of lava, compelling a swift current to follow a 
westerly course in search of an outlet to the 
north. The southern bank is comparatively low, 
formed of sandy, alluvial soil. A few miles above 
the White River the stream takes a northerly 
course through a rugged, mountainous country, 



148 KLONDIKE. 

receiving the addition of the waters of the White 
River on the south, so called from the milky color 
of its water, and a few miles farther on the waters 
of the Stewart on the north. The current is ex- 
ceedingly swift here, especially at a high stage 
of water, being at least six or seven miles an hour. 
From Stewart River to Fort Reliance both banks 
are closed in by high mountains, formed chiefiy 
of basalt rock and slaty shale. Many of the bluffs 
are cut and worn into most picturesque shapes 
by glacial action. At Fort Reliance, an aban- 
doned trading post, the general course of the 
stream changes to northwest, continuing thus 
for a distance of about 500 miles, or as far as the 
confluence with the Porcupine River, which 
flows from the north. 

Some forty miles from Fort Reliance the 
mouth of Forty Mile Creek is passed, where is 
located the miners' trading post and where for 
some time were found the chief gold diggmgs. 
Some thirty-eight miles from there the river 
crosses the eastern boundar}^ of Alaska. For a 
hundred miles after crossing the boundary the 
river runs in one broad stream, confined on ei- 
ther side by high banks and a mountainous 
country, known as the "Upper Rampart." It 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY 149 

then widens out, and for a distance of 150 miles 
is a network of channels and small islands. At 
Old Fort Yukon, an abandoned Hudson Bay 
post, it attains its high northern latitude, being 
just within the Arctic circle. From main bank 
to bank the distance has been found to be ex- 
actly seven miles at a point just above the site 
of Fort Yukon. This place is probably the only 
serious obstacle to navigation that is met with 
from the mouth of the river to Fort Selkirk, a 
distance of over one thousand six hundred miles, 
the channel here shifting from year to year and 
at certain stages of water it is difficult to find. 
From Fort Yukon to the mouth the river has 
been frequently traveled and well described. 

According to Dr. Dall the character of the 
country in the vicinity of the Yukon River va- 
ries from low, rolling and somewhat rocky hills, 
usually easy of ascent, to broad and rather marshy 
plains, extending for miles on either side of the 
river, especially near the mouth. There are no 
roads, except an occasional trail, hardly notice- 
able except by a voyageur. The Yukon and its 
tributaries form the great highways of the coun- 
try . 

The soil is usually frozen at a depth of three 



150 KLONDIKE. 

or four feet in ordinary situations. In colder ones 
it remains icy to within eighteen inches of the 
surface. This layer of frozen soil is six or eight 
feet thick. Below that depth the soil is usually 
destitute of ice. 

This phenomenon appears to be directly trace- 
able to want of drainage, combined with non- 
conductive covering of moss, which prevents the 
scorching sun of the boreal midsummer from 
thawing and warming the soil. 

A singular phenomenon on the shores of Es- 
choltz Bay, Kotzebue Sound, was first observed 
and described in the voyage of the Rurik by 
Kotzebue and Chamisso, and afterwards in the 
appendix to the voyage of the Herald by Buck- 
land and Forbes. 

It consists of bluffs or banks (thirty to sixty 
feet high) of apparently solid ice, fronting the 
water, which washes on a small beach formed by 
detritus, at the foot of the bank. These contin- 
uous banks of ice, strange to say, are covered 
v/ith a layer of soil and vegetable matter, where, 
to use the words of the renowned botanist, Dr. 
Seemann, ''herbs and shrubs are flourishing with 
a luxuriance only equaled in more favored 
climes." 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 151 

The climate of the Yukon Territory in the in- 
terior (as is the case throughout Alaska) differs 
from that of the sea coast, even in localities com- 
paratively adjacent. That of the coast is tem- 
pered by the vast body of water contained in 
Bering Sea, and many southern currents bring- 
ing warmer water from the Pacific, making the 
winter climate of the coast much milder than that 
of the country, even thirty miles into the interior; 
this, too, without any high range of mountains 
acting as a bar to the progress of warm winds. 
The summers, on the other hand, from the quan- 
tity of rain and cloudy weather, are cooler and 
less pleasant than those of the interior. The 
months of May and June, however, and part of 
July, are delightful — sunny, warm and clear. To 
quote Seemann again, on the northern coast, 
"the growth of plants is rapid in the extreme. 
The snow has hardly disappeared before a mass 
of herbage has sprung up, and the spots which 
a few days before presented nothing but a white 
sheet are teeming with active vegetation, pro- 
ducing leaves, flowers and fruits in rapid succes- 
sion." Even during the long Arctic day the 
plants have their period of sleep, short, though 
plainly marked, as in the tropics, and indicated 



152 KLONDIKE. 

by the same drooping of the leaves and other 
signs, which we observe in milder climates. The 
following table shows the mean temperature of 
the seasons at St. Michael's, on the coast of Nor- 
ton Sound, in latitude 63 degrees 28 minutes; at 
the Mission, on the Yukon River, one hundred 
and fifty miles from its mouth, in latitude 61 de- 
grees 47 minutes; at Nulato, four hundred and 
fifty miles farther up the river, in latitude 64 de- 
grees 40 minutes (approximate), and at Fort Yu- 
kon, twelve hundred miles from the mouth of 
the river and about latitude 66 degrees 34 min- 
utes: 
Means for StMich's. Mission. Nulato. Ft.Y'n. 

Spring 29.3 19.62 29.3 14.22 

Summer 53.0 59.32 60.0 59.67 

Autumn 26.3 36.05 36.0 17.37 

Winter 8.6 0.95 14.0 23.80 

Year 29.3 26.48 27.8 16.92 

The mean annual temperature of the Yukon 
Territory, as a whole, may be roughly estimated 
at about 25 degrees. Open water may be found 
on all the rivers in the coldest weather and nnny 
springs are not frozen up throughout the year. 

At Fort Yukon Dr. Dall says he has seen the 
thermometer at noon, not in the direct rays of the 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 153 

sun, standing at 112 degrees, and he was in- 
formed by the commander of the post that sev- 
eral spirit thermometers graduated up to 120 
degrees had burst under the scorching sun of 
the Arctic midsummer, which can only be thor 
oughly appreciated by one who has endured it. 
In midsummer on the Upper Yukon the only 
relief from the intense heat, under which the 
vegetation attains an almost tropical luxuriance, 
is the brief space during which the sun hovers 
over the northern horizon. 

The rain fall is much greater in summer on 
the coast than in the interior. The months of 
May, June and part of July bring sunny, delight- 
ful weather; but the remainder of the season, four 
days in a week at least, will be rainy at St. Mich- 
ael's. October brings a change. The winds, us- 
ually from the southwest from July to the latter 
part of September, in October are mostly from 
the north, and, though cold, bring fine weather. 
They are interrupted occasionally by gales, the 
most violent of the season, from the southwest; 
piling the driftwood upon the shores, where it 
lies until the succeeding fall, unless carried off by 
the natives for fuel. 

The valley of the Lower Yukon is somewhat 



154 KLONDIKE. 

foggy in the latter part of the summer; but as 
the river is ascended the dimate improves and the 
short summer at Fort Yukon is dry, hot and 
pleasant, only varied by an occasional shower. 

The first requisite for habitation or even ex- 
ploration in any country is timber. With it al- 
most all parts of the Yukon territory are well sup- 
plied. The treeless coasts even of the Arctic 
Ocean can hardly be said to be an exception, as 
they are bountifully supplied with driftwood from 
the immense supplies brought down by the Yu- 
kon, Kuskoquim and other rivers, and distributed 
by the waves and ocean currents. 

The largest and most valuable tree found in this 
district is the white spruce, which is found over 
the whole country a short distance inland, but 
largest and most vigorous in the vicinity of run- 
ning water. It attains not unfrequently the 
height of fifty to one hundred feet, with a diame- 
ter of over three feet near the butt; but the most 
common size is thirty or forty feet and twelve to 
eighteen inches at the butt. It is quite durable. 
Many houses, twenty years old, built of this tim- 
ber, contained a majority of sound logs, but when 
used green, without proper seasoning, it will not 
last over fifteen years. These trees decrease in 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 155 

size, and grow more sparingly near Fort Yukon^ 
but are still large enough for most purposes. 

The tree of next importance in the econom}^ 
of the inhabitants is the birch. This tree rarely 
grows over eighteen inches in diameter and forty 
feet high. 

Several species of poplar abound, the former 
along the water side and the latter on drier up- 
lands. The first mentioned species grows to a 
very large size, frequently two or three feet in 
diameter and forty to sixty feet high. The tim- 
ber, however, is of little value, but the extreme 
softness of the wood, is often taken advantage of 
by the natives with their rude iron or stone axes, 
to make small boards or other articles for use in 
their lodges. They also rub up with charcoal the 
down from the seed-vessels for tinder. 

Willows and alders are the most abundant of 
trees and all sizes of the former may be found. 

The treeless coasts of the territory, as well as 
the lowlands of the Yukon, are covered in spring 
with a most luxuriant growth of grass and flow- 
ers. Among the more valuable of these grasses 
is the Kentucky blue grass, which grows as far 
north as Kotzbue Sound, and on the coast of Nor- 
ton Sound with a truly surprising luxuriance. It 



156 KLONDIKE. 

reaches in very favorable situations four or even 
five feet in height and averages at least three feet. 

Grain has never been sown to any extent in 
the Yukon territory. Barley was once or twice 
tried at Fort Yukon in small patches and succeed- 
ed in maturing the grain, though the straw was 
very short. Attempts were also made at 40-Mile 
Post in 1890. 

Turnips and radishes always flourished ex- 
tremely well at St. Michael's and the same is said 
of Nulato and Fort Yukon. Potatoes succeeded 
at the latter place, though the tubers were small 
They were regularly planted for several years, un- 
til the seed was lost by freezing during the winter. 
At St. Michael's they did not do well. 

Salad was successful, but cabbage would not 
head. The white round turnips, grown at St. 
Michael's, from European seed, were very large, 
some weighing five or six pounds. 

The inhabitants of the upper Yukon, from the 
Rampart house to the boundary, formed part of 
the nation known to the English missionaries of 
the Hudson Bay side as the Tukudh Indians, 
tribes of which extend over the country enclosed 
by the Porcupine River, the Peel River to the 
MacKenzie, the Upper Yukon to the neighbor- 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 157 

hood of the Stick Indians in the south and to the 
southeast in the McMillan River country. They 
speak of themselves, however, as Yukon Indians. 
Their language has been put into print by the 
venerable Robert McDonald, archdeacon, Bibles 
and hymn books being universally read by all 
from Nuklukayet up. They are of average size, 
lithe and active, many of them being quite grace- 
ful in their carriage. In appearance they ap- 
proach the typical North American Indians; 
sharp features, aquiline nose, and high cheek 
bones, with very small feet and hands. They are 
nomadic in their ways of life, living in temporary 
camps both winter and summer, either in the 
mountains or on the river banks, according to the 
habits of the game they are hunting. 

Some few in the neighborhood of the mining 
camp are perceptibly changing their mode of life. 
Around the trading post at Forty Mile Creek 
there are a number of log cabins built and inhabi- 
ted by them the year around, and they fully ap- 
precite the advantages of stoves and clothing 
from the States. The younger men are said to be 
more fastidious in their dress than the average 
white man. They are industrious and fairly en- 
terprising, many of them working successfully at 



158 KLONDIKE. 

mining for wages paid by the whites, and some 
are mining on their own account. They make 
excellent boatmen, pohng a boat with skill, boats 
built of sawed lumber being preferred for river 
navigation to their own birch canoes. Docile 
and peaceable both among themselves and with 
the miners, they are strongly imbued with the 
teachings of the English missionaries, with whom 
they had more or less intercourse for many years 
previous to occupation of the country by the 
United States. Formerly their chief subsistence 
w^as cariboo and moose meat, and fish they only 
knew during the summer and fall, but since the 
arrival of the muners they depend each year more 
and more on white men's provisions. Obtaining 
pay for work, they also avoid the necessity of 
hunting for f-ur to buy provisions with, as used 
to be the case in former years ; hence the falling 
off of the supply of furs from that section. 

The population is very sparse. At certain 
times during the year a traveler might pass down 
the Yukon from Forty Mile Creek to Nuklukayet 
and hardly see a score of natives in a distance of 
800 miles. The different villages or communities 
seem to be under the guidance of chiefs and sub- 
chiefs, though there does not appear to be much 
authority exerted by them. 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 159 

Their mode of transportation in summer time 
is by rafts, boats and birch canoes, and is entire- 
ly confined to the streams and water courses ; in 
the winter time sleds are used, drawn by dogs, 
men or women. Their language is known to the 
missionaries as a dialect of Tukudh (Tukuth), but 
they converse with the traders in a jargon called 
"Slavey," a mixture of Canadian French and hy- 
brid words of English, something in the nature of 
the "Chinook" of southeastern Alaska. 

At Nuklukayet and dov»'n to the vicinity of 
Nulato changes are to be observed in the na- 
tives; though very similar in general appearance, 
they seem to be a mixture of tribes from the 
Koyukuk and Tanana Rivers and of Ingalik, 
from lower down the Yukon. 

Their language is different, though many can 
converse in a dialect that is understood by the 
Upper Yukon people. They are not so nomadic 
in their way of life, Hving in villages, building 
log cabins and huts of earth and logs. They de- 
pend most largely on the supply of fish and not 
so much on game. They are mostly addicted to 
paganism, being more superstitious and depend- 
ing on instructions from the shaman, or medi- 
cine man. They also are becoming yearly more 



160 KLONDIKE. 

dependent on provisions from the States, but 
have to procure them by trapping fur-bearing an- 
imals to a far larger extent than those of the up- 
per river. They are shrewd traders, taking ad- 
vantage of every point. They do not so readily 
adapt themselves to the ways of the white man. 
They are more pugnacious, quick-tempered, re- 
senting a fancied injury or insult very quickly 
with force. Many years ago some of them killed 
a white w^oman, the wife of a trader at a post a 
few miles up the Tanana River, at the instigation 
of a shaman. Four years ago at Nuklukayet, on 
account of a disagreement with a trader, they 
broke open the store, scattered the goods about 
recklessly and would have shed blood if the}^ 
had not met with adequate resistance. Relig- 
ious teaching does not seem to have the same ef- 
fect upon them as on the natives on the upper 
river. They have had visits from Russian priests 
and resident English missionaries in past years, 
without much notable e^ect upon their lives or 
morals. Their villages are only found on tlie 
main river, hunting parties only going into the 
back country temporarily, at which time all -the 
members of the families take part in the expedi- 
tion. The population found on this part of the 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 161 

river is much larger than that of the Upper Yu- 
kon. There is no time of the year when more or 
less people are not to be found in the villages, 
and we find among them a larger proportion of 
females than on the Upper Yukon. Some time 
ago the lack of females was most noticeable 
among the Indians of the upper river, attributa- 
ble to hard usage and the work they were com- 
pelled to do, as well as to the lack of care of 
female children. Of late, however, female chil- 
dren have been better taken care of, and proba- 
bly in course of time there will be more mar- 
riageable women among them. Most of the mar- 
ried women to be seen there at present come 
from the Koyukuk or the Lower Yukon River. 
The Nuklukayet and Nowikaket people claim 
to have their origin from the tribe on the Koyu- 
kuk River in the north. The Tanana River and 
Upper Yukon Indians speak an entirely different 
language, though there is a dialect by which 
they can communicate with the various tribes. 

The fur trade has undergone considerable 
change of late years, the catch of furs being con- 
siderable less than formerly, partly owing to the 
decrease of fur-bearing animals, and also to their 
being more white men in the country, indepen- 
11 



162 KLONDIKE. 

dent of the fur traders, causing the circulation of 
more money among the natives, with which they 
buy instead of trading furs. The average catch 
of land furs for the whole year ranges from 16,- 
000 to 20,000 pelts, usually with a large propor- 
tion of mink skins, the lowest-priced fur on the 
market. 

There are six trading posts at points on the 
river in Alaska. The traders, to reach the back 
country, usually fit out trusty natives with small 
stock of goods to travel among the distant tribes. 
Since the discontinuance of opposition the white 
traders do not travel in the winter. The prices 
paid are regulated by the standard price of red 
fox or martin, called one skin, about $1.25. A 
prime beaver would be two skins, black bear 
four skins, lynx one skin, land otter two or three 
skins and so on. Five yards of drilling or one 
pound of tea or one pound of powder or half a 
pound of powder with one box of caps and one 
pound of shot are given for one skin, fifty pounds 
of flour for four skins, five pounds of sugar for 
one skin. These are sample prices obtained by 
the natives, with little variation, until the mining 
district is reached, where the prices are higher, 
to conform with the prices chaij^ed to miners. 

The merchandise is carried on the river by 




]i:ii-Xu<A^-: 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 163 

means of stern-wheel steamers, the two principle 
ones belonging to the Alaska Commercial Com- 
pany, one of 200 tons, the other of thirty tons 
capacity, carrying freight and passengers. On 
the larger boat there is a white man for captain 
and another for engineer, but both captain and 
engineer are unlicensed and without papers; the 
rest of the crew are Indians. There are three 
other small steamers, two belonging to the Rus- 
sian and Catholic missionaries respectively and 
one to the traders at Fort Selkirk. All supphes 
are received at St. Michael on Norton Sound, 
ninety miles north of the mouth of the Yukon, 
the furs and gold obtained being turned over to 
the Alaska Commercial Company's agent there 
and shipped to San Francisco. Once a year, in 
June, the missionaries and traders assemble at 
St. Michael's and for a few days that place is do- 
ing a rushing business. It has become a regular 
fair for the natives, who gather in numbers from 
various points on the coast and river, getting a 
few days' work from the company and having the 
satisfaction of seeing the new stock of merchan- 
dise. 

The influx of miners to the country has pro- 
duced marked changes among the natives, and 



164 KLONDIKE. 

not to their benefit morally. The illicit manu- 
facture and use of liquor, both by the traders of 
the company and miners, is demoralizing the na- 
tives to a great extent. It is openly carried on 
both the upper and lower rivers. At Andreafsky, 
on the lower river, it is a common sight to see 
intoxicated natives, more especially in the win- 
ter, and the natives have now learned the pro- 
cess of making liquor themselves, more particu- 
larly on the coast and the Lower Yukon. 

On the coast the temperature varies from 70 
degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 40 degrees and 
45 degrees below zero in the winter. The late 
summer and fall is usually stormy and wet, the 
snow fall in winter being from three to five feet 
on a level. Navigation is closed to the outside 
for seven months in the year by heavy ice on the 
sea. The Yukon River is closed by ice from No- 
vember to the end of May. In the interior the 
climate is dryer and warmer in summer, but many 
degrees colder in winter, the thermometer going 
as low as 60 degrees below zero. The snow fall 
is excessive, but less wind prevails here in winter 
than on the coast. 

For many miles on the lower river the banks 
are devoid of timber other than a stumpage 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 165 

growth of willow brush, alder and cottonwood. 
The first spruce timber is seen some fifty miles 
below the Russian mission, at Ikomiut, and from 
there up to its head the river is more or less 
belted with timber, spruce, fir, hemlock, birch, 
alder and cottonwood being the varieties most 
predominant. 

On the low islands and flats the spruce at- 
tains a considerable size, but as lumber it is not 
adapted for any purpose beyond the needs of the 
miners and others in the country, being checked 
by frost and full of knots. The growth of tim- 
ber seems to be entirely confined to the margins 
of the streams and rivers in many instances being 
merely a fringe on the banks. 

There is a great variety of berries to be found 
all through the country; high and low bush cran- 
berries, blueberries, salmon berries, red currants, 
and raspberries. The salmon or dewberries abound 
on the swampy lands of the Lower Yukon, and 
are gathered by the natives in quantities, who 
preserve them by burying them in the ground, 
using them as a delicacy in the winter, mixed 
with seal oil or deer fat and snow. 

Game is said to be scarce, considering the im- 



166 KLONDIKE. 

mense stretches of uninhabited country. Numer- 
ous signs are to be seen on the banks of the main 
river, but so far few white men have proved suc- 
cessful hunters, owing to the difficulties of travel. 
An Indian traveling with no impediments can 
scour over the country, and, being acquainted 
with every game sign, can obtain some reward 
for his exertion, where a white man would starve. 

Though some distance to the north of the en- 
trance of the Yukon River, St. Michael has al- 
ways been a controlling centre and basis of sup- 
plies for the great river of the far northwest. 
From here the hardy Muscovite pioneers pushed 
their advance slowly and laboriously with clums}'- 
boats in skin-covered "bidars," and trudging over 
the frozen snow plains with their dog teams until 
the met the forerunners of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany on their way down the river, which English 
geographers of that time pictured as emptying 
into the Arctic. 

As long as the Russians were in possession of 
this region all furs secured in the Kuskokwim 
Valley were transported over the Yukon portage 
to St. Michael, and thence shipped to Sitka, to- 
gether with those obtained by barter from the 
natives of the shores and islands of Bering 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 167 

Strait. The first American traders to engage 
in the Yukon trade were members of the Western 
Union Telegraph expedition, and foremost 
among these pioneers were Ketchum and Clark. 
Later came Mercier, a brother of the Canadian 
ex-minister, and a host of other French Canadi- 
ans, together Vv^ith three prospectors, McQueston, 
Mayo (Amxcricans), and Harper (an Englishman), 
who still control the trade and much of the min- 
ing industry of the Upper Yukon and its trib- 
utaries from Fort Selkirk westward. 

The basis of supplies for the whole district 
was early taken by the Alaska Commercial Com- 
pany, who at first utilized a small stern-wheel 
steamer placed upon the river by the telegraph 
company, and later built other vessels for the pur- 
pose of towing loaded barges tip the river. Later 
the firms who entered into competition with the 
company in other districts made a lodgment near 
St. Michael, and another steamer was placed upon 

the river. 

In the year 1883 this opposition collapsed, but 
shortly after the bar diggings of Forty Mile 
Creek and other parts of the Upper Yukon were 
discovered, which caused a sudden revival of 
trade, chiefly in miners' suppUes, and induced the 



168 KLONDIKE. 

traders mentioned above to acquire small steam- 
boats of their own. 

The flourishing missionary establishments of 
the Roman Catholic and the Episcopalian 
Churches also serve to increase traffic upon the 
great river during the brief season of navigation. 
Both the Roman Catholic and the Russian Ortho- 
dox missions now possess steamers for carrying 
their freight up from St. Michael and to trans- 
port their missionaries over their extensive field 
of labor. 

The post of St. Michael, though insignificant 
in dimensions and most desolate surroundings, 
springs into life and activity once a year. With 
the first breath of spring, at the end of May, 
the up-river people shake off their winter's leth- 
argy and prepare for their annual meeting v/ith 
their fellows from the outside world. The steam- 
ers, which had been hauled up at various points 
on the river bank in the autumn, are prepared 
and launched once more upon the muddy waters 
as soon as the ice has ceased to float down the 
rapid current, crashing and grinding cake against 
cake, or pressing against the forest border of the 
channel, cutting and barking the trees, arid 
down in the treeless waste of the lower river, un- 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 169 

dermining the soft clay banks and changing the 
face of the landscape. 

Traders, missionaries, miners and na^iives 
crowd every craft and enjoy the hospitality freely 
offered them on their seaward progress at posts 
and missions. 

By the end of June all these Yukon pilgrims 
have reached their goal, St. Michael, and, while 
they are waiting for the arrival of the ocean 
steamer, accounts are regulated and engagements 
entered into for the transactions for the coming 
season. The natives assembled here on these 
occasions represent all the tribes of the Yukon 
and many of those of the Arctic and the Bering 
Sea coast. Most of these bring trade with furs 
or ivory and whalebone, and, though all strive to 
hold their wares from the white man until the 
steamer arrives with the new stock of goods, 
quite an exchange of commodities goes on in the 
meantime am.ong themselves. 

With the arrival of the steamer, which is some- 
times delayed weeks, causing much inconveni- 
ence to the commissary department of so large 
an assemblage, business activity rises at once to 
fever heat. Miners in ragged garments, showing 
the wear and tear of sub-arctic travel, Indians of 



170 KLONDIKE. 

the interior in beaded suits of tanned moose skin, 
and Eskimo in furs, all lend a hand and labor 
cheerfully, getting the cargo ashore and reload- 
ing it on the river boats. The black-robed mis- 
sionary relaxes from his habitual dignity, and can 
be seen trundling barrels and bales and trucking 
boxes and miscellaneous packages over the 
planked w^alls of the crowded station. The light 
of day lasts all through the brief arctic summer 
night, and the turmoil is kept up almost v^ithout 
cessation until at last the steamer's vc^histle warns 
those who do not wish to spend another winter in 
these desolate regions that they must depart. The 
lucky individuals, who have bags of gold dust 
in the purser's safe, seek their comfortable state- 
rooms, while the rank and file of prospectors 
cheerfully accept such accommodations as steer- 
age or deck afford, brining out of the country no 
more, and' probably much less, than they brought 
into it over the toilsome road from Chilkoot to 
the Yukon diggings. 

The trade of the Upper Yukon is of great vol- 
ume, but it is carried on under peculiar condi- 
tions. The supplies are purchased in the United 
States, chiefly in California, and carried thence 
to St. Michael. From here the river steamers, 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 171 

carrying the Stars and' Stripes, ascend the river, 
dropping freight at intermediate stations, but the 
principal business is transacted at the point o£ 
junction between the Yukon River and Forty 
Mile Creek, some thiry miles beyond our bound- 
ary. The purchasers here are miners who toil in 
the upper ravines of Forty Mile Creek, which lie 
within the limits of Alaska. Prices are necessar- 
ily high, for during every winter the trader is 
called upon to feed numbers of unsuccessful min- 
ers and assist them in leaving the country in the 
spring. 

The Alpine coast region, rising abruptly from 
the shores of the North Pacific Ocean between 
Cape Spencer on the east and Mount St. Elias on 
the west, has been the objective point of several 
exploring expeditions. Lieutenant Frederick 
Schwatka, formerly of the United States Army; 
Professor Libby and Lieutenant Selton-Karr, of 
the British Army, were among the first to at- 
tempt the exploration and partial ascent of Mt. 
St. Elias, a giant among the mountain peaks of 
North America.. They were followed later by 
well-organized parties under the auspices of the 
National Geographic Society and the United 
States Geological Survey. Under the leadership of 



172 KLONDIKE. 

Professor I. C. Russell these parties have attained 
in two successive seasons a large amount of the 
most valuable information concerning this moun- 
tain, which is claimed by Americans and English 
alike as lying within their boundaries. 

In the course of his second exploration Profes- 
sor Russell, after reaching a height of 14,000 
feet, succeeded in making measurements of Mt. 
St. Elias from a base line on the sea shore, from 
which the height of the mountain was computed, 
at 18,100 feet. On the return journey the low 
coast region lying at the foot of the observations 
was made in Disecnhantment Bay, at the head of 
Yakutat Bay, furnishing material for the compila- 
tion of a reliable map of the estuary, exhibiting 
a remarkable deviation from the outlines here- 
tofore accepted on the authority of Tebenkof and 
others, who did not personally explore the inner- 
most recesses of this great bay. 

Another important exploration, resulting in the 
collection of much information concerning the 
interior geography and topography in Alaska and 
adjoining territory in the British possessions was 
made by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, accom- 
panied by Lieutenant Hayes, of the United States 
Geological Survey. This expedition set out in 



THE WONDERFUL YUKON COUNTRY. 173 

an easterly direction from Taku Inlet along Taku 
river; then crossing the coast range, they emerged 
upon the banks of Lake Aklene, which is prob- 
ably the true head of the Yukon River. Follow- 
ing the northern outlet of this lake, the party 
passed the mouth of the tributary heretofore ac- 
cepted as the Yukon's head, a few miles above 
Lake Labarge. Thence to Fort Selkirk their 
•course was over a well-known course, but on 
leaving that point an entirely new route was fol- 
lowed, leading towards the mountains forming 
the divide between the Yukon Basin, the upper 
course of White River, and the easternmost tribu- 
tary of Copper River. After discovering a pass 
but little over 5000 feet in height the party 
struck the Chityna River, about midway between 
its headwaters and its junction with the Copper. 
The latter river was then followed to the coast. 

Valuable additions have also been made to our 
knowledge of Alaskan geography by the mem- 
bers of an exploring expedition organized in 1890 
under the auspices of Frank Leslie's Illustrated 
Weekly. The leaders of the party, Messrs. A. 
J. Wells, E. J. Glave and A, B. Schanz, entered 
the interior by way of the Chilkoot River, and, 
after crossing the coast range, came upon a large 



174 KLONDIKE. 

lake, the head of the Tahkina tributary of the 
Yukon, which was named Lake Arkell. It is 
probable that this is the same lake which the 
German explorer, Krause, visited in 1879 and 
named Western Kussoa, in contra-distinction 
from the Eastern Kussoa which he found beyond 
the Chilkoot Pass. Here Mr. Glave left the 
party, and, striking across the coast range south- 
ward, discovered the headwaters of the Alsekh 
River; following down its channel to the coast 
at Dry Bay, Messrs. Wells and Schanz proceeded 
to the Upper Yukon by the usual route. At 
Forty Mile Creek Mr. Wells and another white 
man turned off, and, with the assistance of a 
miner who was engaged as guide, crossed over 
into the basin of the Tanana River and explored 
an unknown tributary of that stream. Mr. Schanz 
traveled down the Yukon to St. Michael, and 
thence back to the Kuskokwim Portage and 
down that river to the sea coast, reaching Bristol 
Bay in October. Here he was joined a month 
loter by Mr. Wells and his party, who had fol- 
lowed the same route from the mouth of the 
Tanana River. During the months of January 
and February Mr. Schanz, in company with Mr. 
J. W. Clark, accomplished a dog sledge journey 



THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 175 

of discovery, resulting in the definite location and 
exploration of a large lake to the northward of 
Lake Lliamna. This important sheet of water, 
some seventy-five miles long, was named Lake 
Clark. The Noghelin River, broken about mid- 
way by a magnificent fall, connects it with Lake 
Lliamna, of which it is the principal feeder. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 

There is every probability that the new dis- 
coveries of gold will bring the long pending 
boundary dispute between the United States and 
Great Britain to a head, for the most profitable 
diggings are situated near the 141st meridian, 
which is the boundary fixed by treaty in the 
Northwestern territory. Unfortunately this 
country has never been adequately surveyed, 
and there is great uncertainty as tO' whether 
some of the richest creeks are situated on Alas- 
kan or British soil. The Canadian authorities 
have lost no time in assuming that the boundary 
line should be so drawn as to bring all the finest 



176 KLONDIKE. 

deposits to the East. There is no doubt that 
Klondike River is in Canadian territory, but the 
Canadian newspapers claim persistently that Mil- 
ler's Creek and the other gold yielding creeks 
near by are east of the line. 

It appears from the report of General W. W. 
Duffield, Chief of the United States Coast and 
Geodetic Survey, that in spite of Klondike, the 
United States has the lion's share of the gold 
fields. 

"In the Yukon region," he says, "the surveys 
of the -epresentatives of the United States and 
those of Great Britain are very nearly identical, 
with one or two exceptions, and are remarkable 
when all things are considered. Her Majesty's 
surveyor, Ogilvie, was appointed by Mr. King^ 
and went up there in 1890. The coast survey 
tested the work of Ogilvie and the Canadians on 
Forty-Mile Creek and on the Yukon. They 
found at Forty-Mile Creek a pine tree marked 
by Ogilvie, which lacked only fifteen-one-hun- 
dredths of a second of being identical with the 
determination of the Coast Survey. In that lat- 
itude this makes a difference of six feet and seven 
inches. On the Yukon, Ogilvie marked a wil- 
low tree on the south or left bank and a pine on 



THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 177 

the right or north bank. When these were 
tested they were found to be fourteen seconds 
and 22-iooths out. This in that latitude is a dis- 
tance of 6i8 feet. One of these marks — that at 
Forty-Mile Creek — is too far west, so that the 
United States loses six feet and seven inches. On 
the Yukon the point is too far east, so that the 
United States gains and Canada loses 6i8 feet. 
The Coast Survey has marked the crossing of the 
141st meridian at Porcupine Creek, but the Ca- 
nadians have never tested it. Considering the 
fact that Ogilvie was traveling light on snow 
shoes, and that almost all of his determinations 
were made with the sextant, his work is excel- 
lent. 

*Tn substance, these determinations throw the 
diggings at the mouth of Forty-Mile Creek with- 
in the territory of the United States. The whole 
valley of Birch Creek, another most valuable 
gold producing part of the country, is also in the 
territory of the United States. Most of the gold 
is to the west of the crossing of the 141st mer- 
idian at Forty-Mile Creek. 

"If we produce the 141st meridian on a chart, 
the mouth of Miller's Creek, a tributary of Sixty- 
Mile Creek, and a valuable gold region, is five 
12 



178 KLONDIKE. 

miles west in an air line, or seven miles accord- 
ing to the windings of the stream — all within the 
territory of the United States. In substance, the 
only places in the Yukon region where gold in 
quantities has been found, are, therefore, all to 
the west of the boundary line between Canada 
and the United States." 

In spite of this the very latest Canadian map 
claims Miller's Creek and Glacier Creek. 

This is not all. For the last twelve years the 
British Government has been trying by con- 
tinually increasing claims to shake the hold of 
the United States upon the strip of mainland in 
Southeastern Alaska, and upon some of the gold 
bearing islands. 

Up to 1884 both countries were practically at 
one as to the boundary line from Mt. St. Elias to 
the southeast. According to the terms of the 
treaty between Russia and Great Britain, the 
United States, in purchasing Alaska in 1867, ac- 
quired all of Russia's rights. In describing the 
southeastern boundary the Anglo-Russian treaty 
reads : 

"The line of demarkation between the possess- 
ions of the high contracting parties upon the 
coast of the continent and the islands of America 




.^ -i? '■mxmi h's^t.m,* • 





THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 179 

to the northwest shall be drawn in the following 
manner: Commencing from the southernmost 
point of the island called Prince of Wales Island, 
which point lies in the parallel of 54 degrees 40 
minutes north latitude, and between the 131st 
degree and the 133d degree of west longitude, 
the same line shall ascend to the north along the 
channel called Portland Channel, as far as the 
point of the continent where it strikes the 56th 
degree of north latitude ; from this last-mentioned 
point the line of demarkation shall follow the 
summit of the mountains situated parallel to the 
coast as far as the point of intersection of the 
141st degree of west longitude (of the same 
meridian), and finally, from the said point of in- 
tersection, the said meridian line of the 141st de- 
gree, in its prolongation as far as the frozen 
ocean, shall form the limit between the Russian 
and British possessions on the continent of 
America to the northwest. 

"Whenever the summit of the mountains 
which extend in a direction parallel to the coast 
from the 56th degree of north latitude to the 
point of intersection of the 141st degree of west 
longitude, shall prove to be at the distance of 
more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, 



180 KLONDIKE. 

the limit between the British possessions and the 
line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as 
above mentioned (that is to say, the limit to the 
possessions ceded by this convention), shall be 
formed by a line parallel to the winding of the 
coast, and which shall never exceed the distance 
of ten marine leagues therefrom." 

On all maps from 1825 down to 1884 the boun- 
dary line, it was declared, had been shown as, in 
general terms, parallel to the winding of the 
coast, and thirty-five miles from it. In 1884, 
however, an official Canadian map showed a 
marked deflection in this line at its south end. 
Instead of passing up Portland Canal this Cana- 
dian map showed the boundary as passing up 
Behm Canal, an arm of the sea some sixty or 
seventy miles west of Portland Canal, this 
change having been made on the bare assertion 
that the words Portland Canal as inserted were 
an error. By this change the line and an area 
of American territory about equal in size to the 
State of Connecticut was transferred to British 
territory. There are several facts which militate 
against this claim. In the first place, the British 
Admirality, when surveying the northern limit 
of British Columbian possession, in 1868, one 



THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 181 

year after the cession of Alaska, surveyed Port- 
land Canal, and not Behm Canal, thus by impli- 
cation admitting this canal as the boundary line. 
The region now claimed by British Colum- 
bia was at that time occupied by a military post 
of the United States without objection or protest 
on the part of British Columbia. Annette 
Island, in this region, was, by an act of Congress, 
four years ago, set apart as a reservation for the 
use of the Metlakatla Indians. Within a year 
the United States Engineers, by authorization of 
Congress, have made an official survey of the 
west bank of Portland Canal, building stone 
houses at various places, and thus exercising an 
undoubted act of sovereignty. 

Another grab was made at Lynn Canal, the 
northernmost extension of the Alexander Archi- 
pelago, which runs north of Juneau, and is the 
land outlet for the Yukon trade. The official 
Canadian map of 1884 carried the boundary line 
around the head of this canal ; another Canadian 
canal map three years later carried the line 
across the head of the canal in such manner as 
to throw its head-waters into British territory; 
still later, Canadian maps carry the line not 
across the head of the canal, but cross near its 



182 KLONDIKE. 

mouth, some sixty or seventy miles south of the 
former line, in such a way as to practically take 
in Juneau, or, at least, all the land immediately 
back of it. And the very latest official map, just 
published at Ottawa, while it runs no line south- 
east of Alaska, prints the legend "British Colum- 
bia" over portions of the Lynn Canal that are 
now administered by the United States. The 
post of Dyea, marked Ty-a or Tyea, on Cana- 
dian maps, which is at the head of navigation on 
Lynn Canal, and where the trail starts into the 
interior for the Yukon, which was made a sub- 
port of entry the other day by Secretary Gage, 
is claimed by the Canadians. 



CHAPTER XL 



GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD. 

The United States is the chief gold producing 
country in the world. We have held the lead 
ever since the discovery of gold in California, 
with the exception of 1894, when we fell to third 
place, surrendering first place to Australia and 



GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD. 183 

the second to Africa. The United States regained 
in 1895 ^^^ place lost in 1894, its output of gold 
in the former year having exceeded that of 1894 
by $7,110,000. In 1895 the gold yield of the 
United States was 2,254,760 ounces fine, valued 
at $46,610,000, while the yield of Australasia was 
2,167,117 ounces, valued at $43,893,300. The lat- 
est reported findings, as it happens, will not prop- 
erly be credited to the United States, but with the 
development of the fields actually situated on the 
Alaskan side of the boundary, there is almost 
sure to be such an addition to the product of the 
United States mines as to place them easily and 
permanently at the head of the gold-producing 
countries of the world. The largest production of 
gold in the United States for any single year was 
$65,000,000, in 1853. The next most productive 
years were 1852 and 1854, when the returns were 
$60,000,000 for each year. The least productive 
year since the gold discoveries in California was 
1883, when only $30,000,000 was mined. Since 
then the advance has been steady. 

The gold output of the world from the time 
of the discovery of America to the close of the 
fiscal year 1895 has been estimated at $8,781,858,- 
700. The California gold field since their discov- 



184 KLONDIKE. 

ery in 1849 have alone yielded $2,035,4i6,cxx). 
The total output of the Australian mines, which 
were first worked in 1851, has been $1,655,713,- 
000, and gold has been taken out of the mines of 
South Africa since 1890 to the amount of $211,- 
632,990. The total production of the world in the 
last three years has been as follows : 

1893— $157494,800. 
1894— $181,567,800. 
1895 — ^$200,215,700. 

Of tliese amounts considerably more than 50 
per cent, has come from the United States, 
Australasia, Russia and South Africa, as follows: 

1893. 1894. 1895. 

Dollars. Dollars. Dollars. 

United States. .35,955,000 39,500,000 46,610,000 

Australasia . ..35,688,600 41,760,800 44,798,300 

Russia 27,808,200 24,133,400 28,894,400 

Dominion of 

Canada .... 927,200 1,042,100 1,910,900 

Africa 28,943,500 40,271,000 44,554,900 



CHAPTER XII. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR NORTH- 
WESTERN POSSESSIONS. 

By JOHN F. PRATT. 

To those who are familiar with the story of the 
northwestern country the rich discoveries of gold 
in the Yukon Valley are no surprise. They form 
a chapter in the g-old findings of that region 
which has been writing for many years. Just be- 
fore the war there was widespread excitement 
over the discovery of gold in the Caribou dis- 
trict of British Columbia, and the diggings there 
for a time were very rich. The craze resulted in 
much hardship and many deaths. Later, subse- 
quent to the purchase of Alaska, gold was found 
in cc'nsiderable quantities in the Cassiar district; 
farther to the northwest in British America. 

The Cassiar Mountains are situated between 
the 6oth and 65th degrees of north latitude, at 
the headwaters of the Pelly River. They are 
reached by way of the Stikine River, the outlet of 
which is near Fort Wrangell. These diggings 

135 



186 KLONDIKE. 

are still carried on, and they have yielded much 
gold. There are several quartz lodes in the Cas- 
siar district which are rich, but hardly rich 
enough to mine profitably with the present inade- 
quate facilities for reaching them and for trans- 
porting machinery. During high water steam- 
boats can run well up the river, leaving a dis- 
tance of forty miles between Telegraph Creek 
and Moose Lake to be traveled by pack trains. 
The Cassiar diggings are far less accessible than 
the new gold fields. 

Now, in this same trend or general direction, 
as if in continuation of the line running north- 
west from Caribou through the Cassiar range, 
come the diggings near the place where the Yu- 
kon River crosses the boundary between Alaska 
and British North America, and we are bound to 
suppose that the lode runs still farther along to- 
ward the northwest into the country which is not 
yet prospected at all. 

Although the Klondike is on the Canadian side 
of the boundary, there is reason to believe that 
the great bulk of the gold territory is west of the 
boundary on the American side. This is to be 
deduced from the peculiar locations of the 
streams from along which gold has thus far been 



OUR NORTHWESTERN POSSESSIONS. 187 

taken. Sixty Mile Creek and Forty Mile Creek 
lie largely in United States territory. Both flow 
into the Yukon toward the east. Birch Creek 
flows into the Yukon toward the north and the 
Tenanah River toward the northwest. The Su- 
shitna flows toward the south into Cook's Inlet, 
on the southern coast, where gold has been found. 
The headwaters of all these gold-bearing streams 
flowing in different directions are thus seen to be 
in the same country, about lOO miles west of the 
boundary and south of the Yukon. This seems to 
indicate that the great mother lode is probably 
within the United States and that the more per- 
manent diggings will be found in United States 
territory centering about a spot not aoo miles 
west of the boundary. 

The diggings around Klondike, therefore, are 
not in the middle of the richest gold territory, 
but are rather on the northeast edge. Gold has 
been found as far west as Cook's Inlet on the 
southern coast, between the 150th and I52d de- 
grees west longitude, and it has been found as far 
east as the 128th degree. There is a gold-bear- 
ing area of between forty thousand and fifty thou- 
sand square miles, and the best part of it is on 
the United States side of the boundary. 



188 KLONDIKE. 

Of course, our actual information is exceeding- 
ly limited. Perhaps we know less about the 
Alaskan Territory than about any other territory 
of equal size on the continent. The Yukon River 
has been explored from its mouth to the region 
of the gold diggings, and the trail of the miners 
from Chilkoot Pass to the diggings has given 
us a knowledge of that region; we know the 
mouths of the streams as they flow into the Yu- 
kon; b-ut aside from these we have learned very 
little. Travelers and prospectors have found out 
more or less by interviewing the Indians, who 
have a general idea of direction and distance, 
but this knowledge is not exact. Even our most 
elaborate maps of Alaska depend upon miners' 
plottings and not upon official surveys for the lo- 
cation of the creeks and rivers in the gold region. 
What other information we have of the interior 
has been acquired largely from prospectors and 
on the British side of the boundary from Can- 
adian explorers. We know something about the 
streams and the outlets, but we have not discov- 
ered their sources. The hill country is practically 
4inknown, and there may be large streams con- 
cerning which we have no information. There is 
an immense stretch of territory of perhaps 250,- 



OUR NORTHWESTERN POSSESSIONS. 189 

ooo square miles of which we are practically ig- 
norant. 

We are about as badly off with regard to the 
coast line. The southern coast we know fairly 
well in a general way, but there has never been 
an official survey beyond Sitka. Even the maps 
of the Aleutian Islands are inherited from Russia, 
and there has never been anything like a survey 
of the mouth of the Yukon River. It would be 
of great value, now, if we knew whether there 
was a channel through which the Yukon could be 
reached from Bering Sea by deep water ships. 
We are aware now that shoals extend out for 
twenty-five miles, apparently stretching all the 
way across the mouth of the Yukon, but there 
has never been any survey to discover whether 
there might not be a passage through. All ships 
now, owing to lack of knowledge concerning 
these shoals, are compelled to avoid them alto- 
gether by going to St. Michael, thirty miles north 
of the mouth of the river, there to meet the river 
boats which are obHged, on that account, to make 
the dangerous trip outside on the ocean. If sea- 
going ships could be brought into the mouth of 
the Yukon they might proceed up the river at 
least to as great a distance as that between New 



190 KLONDIKE. 

Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi and 
possibly they cO'Uld continue the journey for sev- 
eral hundred miles. There should be an early 
appropriation for a survey of the mouth of the 
Yukon. There should also be a survey to dis- 
cover whether some of the portages between the 
Yukon at different points and Bering Sea might 
not be available for general trafiic. At one place 
not far from St. Michael Island the Yukon in its 
windings approaches within a few miles of the 
coast. 

It is peculiar that the two entrances to the 
gold country should be, one through the head of 
the Yukon River, the other through the mouth. 
It is 2000 miles from Sitka to the mouth of the 
Yukon, and from the mouth of the Yukon to the 
Klondike is about the same distance, for the 
riA^er is very winding throughout its course. The 
route by sea, which takes the traveler through 
Unimak Pass, separating two of the Aleutian Is- 
lands, to St. Michael, and thence by river boat to 
his destination, will be used largely for getting 
supplies into the gold country; but it is a long 
journey, and steamers going up the Yukon have 
to wait until the ice leaves the river. 

For miners the trails leading up from the head- 




o 

ai 

H 
W 
Z 

w 

CQ 
Cd 



192 KLONDIKE. 

body else knows exactly what route he takes, and 
he will not tell. 

Lynn Canal, as it approaches its head, divides 
into two branches, Chilkat Inlet on the west and 
Chilkoot Inlet on the east. Chilkoot Inlet in 
turn has a branch known as Dyea Inlet, and at 
the head of Dyea Inlet is a small Indian village 
and a store known as Healey's store. In 1894 
Healey's store was the only house in the place. 
It acquires its importance because it is the head 
of navigation and the last base of supplies for 
miners before striking off into the trail for the 
gold country. 

If a railroad is ever constructed into the gold 
fields it will probably be through Chilkoot Pass. 

The natives of the gold country in the interior 
are known as Stick Indians. ''Stick" is the Chi- 
nook expression for wood, and the Stick Indian 
consequently is the Indian of the interior or for- 
est. He is quite distinct from the Chilkat Indian 
on the coast. He is short of stature, but stout, 
his diminutiveness being due to the hardships 
and privations which he has been compelled to 
suflfer always. But physically he is very strong. 
He can carry on his back all day a pack which 
many men would find it uncomfortable to lift. 



OUR NORTHWESTERN POSSESSIONS. 19S 

There are marked differences between the 
Chilkats and the Sticks. The Chilkats spend 
most of their time on the streams and use canoes 
almost exclusively. They do very little tramp- 
ing. They are a fine race, hardy and well 
formed. The Sticks never use canoes. Some of 
them have little dug-outs in the streams in their 
own country, but when they come down to the 
coast, as they come occasionally now, they are 
quite lost. 

The Stick Indians are centered around the 
streams of Alaska, and have to keep pretty near 
to the main stream in order to get their food. 
Until very recently they have never dared to 
come down below the Chilkat Pass, so complete- 
ly were they terrorized by the Chilkat Indians. 
The Chilkats have had absolute control of the 
country along the coast, so much so that they 
were able to collect toll from the miners who 
first went through the Chilkoot Pass. When the 
Russians were in possession of Chilkoot the 
Chilkats were a kind of middlemen between the 
Russian traders and the Indians of the interior. 
Indeed, these peculiar relations seem to have had 
a great deal to do with the drawing of the boun- 
dary line between British America and Russian 
13 



194 KLONDIKE. 

America. The idea of Russia was to continue 
the Hne of demarkation between the trading set- 
tlements of the coast and the Indian settlements 
of the interior, so that this line is really not a 
geographical line, but is intended rather to mark 
the extent of the control of the Indians of the 
coast; that is, to the summit of the mountain 
ranges extending from Portland Canal north to 
Mount St. Elias, beyond which the Sticks never 
dared to come. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



LAWS GOVERNING THE LOCATION 
OF CLAIMS. 

It is important to know something about the 
laws of the United States and of Canada which 
govern the patenting of mineral lands and which 
must be observed in locating claims. The pub- 
lic land laws of the United States do not apply 
to Alaska, and neither do the coal land regula- 
tions, which are distinct from the mineral regu- 
lations. The Territory of Alaska is expressly ex- 



LAWS GOVERNING LOCATION OF CLAIMS. 195 

eluded from the operations of the public land 
and coal land laws by provisions of the laws 
themselves. Mineral lands have been patented 
in Alaska since 1884. Hon. Binger Hermann, 
Commissioner of the United States General 
Land Office, has authorized the statement that 
the following laws are applicable to the Terri- 
tory • 

First — The mineral land laws of the United 
States. 

Second — Town-site laws, which provide for the 
incorporation of town sites and acquirement of 
title thereto from the United States Government 
by the town-site trustees. 

Third — The laws providing for trade and man- 
ufact4ires, giving each qualified person 160 acres 
of land in a square and compact form. 

The act approved May 17, 1884, providing a 
civil government for Alaska, has this language 
as to mines and mining privileges: 

*'The laws of the United States relating to 
mining claims and rights incidental thereto shall, 
on and after the passage of this act, be in full 
force and effect in said district of Alaska, sub- 
ject to such regulations as may be made by the 
Secretary of the Interior and approved by the 
President." 



196 KLONDIKE. 

"Parties who have located mines or mining 
privileges therein, under the United States laws 
applicable to the public domain, or have occupied 
or improved or exercised acts of ownership over 
such claims, shall not Be disturbed therein, but 
shall be allowed to perfect title by payment so 
pro\ ided for." 

There is still more general authority. Without 
the special authority, the act of July 4, 1866, 
says: "All valuable mineral deposits in lands be- 
longing to the United States, both surveyed and 
unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and 
open to exploration and purchase, and lands in 
which these are found to occupation and pur- 
chase by citizens of the United States and by 
those who have declared an intention to become 
such, under the rules prescribed by law and ac- 
cording to local customs or rules of miners in the 
several mining districts, so far as the same are 
applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of 
the United States." 

Under United States laws only those who are 
citizens or who have declared intention to be- 
come citizens may locate or buy claims. There 
are no "free miners." The government cannot 
give the right to mine except in public lands. 



LAWS GOVERNING LOCATION OF CLAIMS. 197 

and these must contain valuable mineral depos- 
its. A claim may not exceed beyond 1500 feet 
along a vein or 300 feet on each side of the mid- 
dle of the vein. A person may locate a claim 
through an agent; $100 worth of work must be 
done each year. Local government prevails in 
the various mining districts of the United States, 
each district being free to manage its own affairs 
so long as it does not do anything inconsistent 
with the national laws. 

Mining operations on the Klondike on the 
British side of the boundary are subject, not to 
the regulations of the Province of British Col- 
umbia, but to the general mining laws of the 
Dominion of Canada. 

As soon as the mounted police force has been 
raised to 100 men from the 20 men now keeping 
order in the country, it will be considered safe to 
promulgate the new regulations for placer gold 
mining. These provide that every alternate 
claim is to be reserved by the crown for the pub- 
lic benefit, and that the royalty to the crown is to 
be '10 per cent, on the yield up to $500 a month 
and 20 per cent, over $500 a month. 

A difficulty with respect to the alternate 
claims is that the placer territory is already. 



198 KLONDIKE. 

staked solid by prospectors, so far as they have 
gone. Turning out the prospectors on every 
alternate claim is not likely to prove a pleasant 
proceeding. Many have staked without regis- 
tering, and those only who have registered are 
safe. The registering has been raised from $5 
to $15 in each case, with an annual tax of $100. 

The miners' tax applies to all alike, and will 
not be levied so as to discriminate against Amer- 
icans. It will be almost impossible to collect 
more than a small proportion. As regards its 
effects on the Canadian miners, it will undoubt- 
edly drive the majority of them, as soon as they 
have made their pile, to take it to the United 
States to evade full assessment. How much of 
the royalties will ever find their way to Canada 
is a question. 

A digest of the Dominion mining laws is given 

below: 

PLACER MINING. 

Nature and Size of Claims — For "Bar Dig- 
gings:" A strip of land 100 feet wide at high- 
water mark and thence extending into the river 
at its lowest water level. 

For "Dry Diggings:" One hundred feet 
square. 



LAWS GOVERNING LOCATION OF CLAIMS. 199 

For "Creek and River Claims:" Five hundred 
feet along the direction of the stream, extend- 
ing in width from base to base of the hill or 
bench on either side. The width of such claims, 
however, is limited to 600 feet when the benches 
are a greater distance apart than that. In such 
a case claims are laid out in areas of ten acres 
with boundaries running north and south, east 
and west. 

For "Bench Claims:" One hundred feet 
square. 

Size of claims to discoverers or parties of dis- 
coverers : 

To one discoverer, 300 feet in length; to a 
party of two, 600 feet in length; to a party of 
three 800 feet in length; to a party of four, 1000 
feet in length; to a party of more than four, or- 
dinary sized claim only. 

New strata of auriferous gravel in a locality 
where claims are abandoned, or dry diggings 
discovered in the vicinity of bar diggings, or vice 
versa, shall be deemed new mines. 

Rights and Duties of Miners — Entries of 
grants for placer mining must be renewed and 
entry fee be paid every year. 

No miner shall receive more than one claim 



500 KLONDIKE. 

in the same locality, but may hold any number 
-of claims by purchase, and any number of miners 
.may unite to work their claims in common, pro- 
vided an agreement be duly registered and a 
registration fee of $5 be duly paid therefor. 

Claims may be mortgaged or disposed of pro- 
vided such disposal be registered and a registra- 
tion fee of $2 be paid therefor. 

Although miners shall have exclusive right of 
entry upon their claims for the "miner-like" 
working of them, holders of adjacent claims 
shall bo granted such right of entry thereon as 
may seem reasonable to the superintendent of 
mines. 

Each miner shall be entitled to so much of the 
water not previously appropriated flowing 
through or past his claim as the superintendent 
•of mmes shall deem necessary to work it, and 
shall be entitled to drain his own claim free of 
charge. 

Claims remaining unworked on working days 
for seventy-two hours are deemed abandoned, 
unless sickness or other reasonable cause is 
shown or unless the grantee is absent on leave. 

For the convenience of miners on back claims, 
on benches or slopes, permission may be granted 



LAWS GOVERNING LOCATION OF CLAIMS. 201 

by the superintendent of mines to tunnel through 
claims fronting on water courses. 

In case of death of a miner the provisions of 
abandonment do not apply during his last ill- 
ness after his decease. 

Acquisition of Mining Locations — Marking 
of Locations: Wooden posts, four inches square, 
driven eighteen inches into the ground and pro- 
jecting eighteen inches above, must mark the 
four corners of a location. In rocky ground, 
stone mounds three feet in diameter may be piled 
about the post. In timbered land well-blazed 
lines must join the posts. In rolHng or uneven 
localities, flattened posts must be placed at in- 
tervals along the lines to mark them, so that 
subsequent explorers shall have no trouble in 
tracing such lines. 

When locations are bounded by lines running 
north and south, east and west, the stake at the 
northeast corner shall be marked by a cutting in- 
strument or by colored chalk, "M. L., No. i" 
(mining location, stake No. i.) Likewise the 
southeasterly stake shall be marked "M. L., No. 
2," the southwesterly *^M. L., No. 3," and the 
northwesterly "M. L., No. 4." Where the 
boundary lines do not run north and south, east 



202 KLONDIKE. 

and west, the northerly stake shall be marked 
I, the easterly 2, the southerly 3 and the westerly 
4. On each post shall be marked also the claim- 
ant's initials and the distance to the next post. 

Application and Affidavit of Discoverer: With- 
in sixty days after marking his location, the 
clannant shall file in the office of the Dominion 
Land office for the district a formal declaration, 
sworn to before the land agent, describing as 
nearly as may be the locality and dimensions of 
the location. With such declaration he must 
pay the agent an entry fee of $5. 

Receipt Issued to Discoverer: Upon such pay- 
n\ent the agent shall grant a receipt authorizing 
the claimant, or his legal representative, to enter 
into possession, subject to renewal every year, 
for five years, provided that in these five years 
$iOO shall be expended on the claim in actual 
m.ining operations. A detailed statement of such 
expenditure must also be filed with the agent of 
the Dominion lands, in the form of an affidavit 
corroborated by two reliable and disinterested 
witnesses. 

Annual Renewal of Location Certificate: Upon 
payment of the $5 fee therefor, a receipt shall be 
issued entitling the claimant to hold the location 
for another year. 



LAWS GOVERNING LOCATION OF CLAIMS. 203 

Working in Partnership: Any party of four or 
less neighboring miners, within three months 
after entering, may, upon being authorized by 
the agent, make upon any one of such locations, 
during the first and second years, but not subse- 
quently the expenditure otherwise required on 
each of the locations. An agreement, however, 
accompanied by a fee of $5, must be filed with 
the agent. Provided, however, that the expendi- 
ture made upon any one location shall not be 
applicable in any manner or for any purpose to 
any other location. 

Purchase of Location: At amy time before the 
expiration of five years from date of entry a 
claimant may purchase a location upon filing 
with the agent proof that he has expended $500 
in actual mining operations on the claim and 
complied with all other prescribed regulations. 
The price of a mining location shall be $5 per 
acre, cash. 

On making an application to purchase, the 
claimant must deposit with the agent $50, to be 
deemed as payment to the government for the 
survey of his location. On receipt of plans and 
field notes and approval by the Surveyor-General, 
a patent shall issue to the claimant. 



204 KLONDIKE. 

Revision of Title: Failure of a claimant to 
prove within each year the expenditure pre- 
scribed, or failure to pay the agent the full cash 
price, shall cause the claimant's right lo lapse 
and the location to revert to the crown, along 
with the improvements upon it. 

Rival Claimants: When two or more persons 
claim the same location the right to acquire it 
shall be in him who can prove he was the first to 
discover the mineral deposit, and to take posses- 
sion in the prescribed manner. Priority of dis- 
covery alone, shall not give the right to acquire. 
A subsequent discoverer, who has complied with 
other prescribed conditions, shall take prece- 
dence over a prior discoverer who has failed so 
to comply. 

When a claimant has, in bad faith, used the 
prior discovery of another and has fraudulently 
affirmed that he made independent discovery 
and demarcation, he shall, apart from other legal 
consequences, have no claim, forfeit his deposit 
and be absolutely debarred from obtaining an- 
other location. 

Rival Applicants: Where there are two or 
more applicants for a mining location, neither 
of whom is the original discoverer, the Minister 



LAWS GOVERNING LOCATION OF CLAIMS. 205 

of the Interior may invite competitive tender^ or 
put it up for auction, as he sees fit. 

Transfer of Mining Rights— Assignment of 
Right to Purchase: An assignment of the right 
to purchase a location shall be indorsed on the 
back of the receipt or certificate of assignment, 
and execution thereof witnessed by two disinter- 
ested witnesses. Upon the deposit of such re- 
ceipt in the office of the land agent, accompanied 
by a registration fee of $2, the agent shall give 
the assignee a certificate entitling him to all the 
rights of the original discoverer. By comply- 
ing with the prescribed regulations such as- 
•signee becomes entitled to purchase the loca- 
tion. 

QUARTZ MINING. 

Regulations in respect to placer mining, so far 
as they relate to entries, entry fees, assignments, 
marking of locations, agents' receipts, etc., ex- 
cept where otherwise provided, apply also to 
quartz mining. 

Nature and Size of Qaims — A location shall 
not exceed the following dimensions: Length, 
1500 feet; breadth, 600 feet. The surface bound- 
aries shall be from straight parallel lines, and its 
boundaries beneath the surface the planes of 
these lines. 



206 KLONDIKE. 

Limit of Number of Locations — Not more 
than one mining location shall be granted to any 
one individual claimant upon the same lode or 
vein. 

Mill Sites — Land used for milling purposes 
may be applied for and patented, either in con- 
nection with or separate from a mining loca- 
tion, and may be held in addition to a mining lo- 
cation, provided such additional land shall in no 
case exceed five acres. 

GENERAL PROVISIONS. 

Decision of Disputes — The superintendent of 
mines shall have power to hear and determine 
all disputes in regard to mining property arising 
within his district, subject to appeal by either 
of the parties to the Commisisoner of Dominion 
Lands. 

Leave of Absence — E^ch holder of a mining 
location shall be entitled to be absent and sus- 
pend work on his diggings during the "close" 
season, which "close" season shall be declared 
by the agent in each district', under instructions 
from the Minister of the Interior. 

The agent may grant a leave of absence pend- 
ing the decision of any dispute before him. 



LAWS GOVERNING LOCATION OF CLAIMS. 207 

Any miner is entitled to a year's leave of ab- 
sence upon proving expenditure of not less than 
$200 without any reasonable return of gold. 

The time occupied by a locator in going to and 
returning from the office of the agent or of the 
superintendent of mines shall not count against 
him. 

Additional Locations — The Minister of the In- 
terior may grant to a person actually developing 
a location an adjoining location equal in size, 
provided it be shown to the Minister's satisfac- 
tion that the vein worked will probably extend 
beyond the boundaries of the original location. 
Forfeiture — In event of the breach of the regula- 
tions, a right or grant shall be absolutely for- 
feited, and the offending party shall be incapable 
of subsequently acquiring similar rights, except 
by special permission of the Minister of the In- 
terior. 



208 KLONDIKE. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CLIMATE OF ALASKA. 

Willis L. Moore, chief of the United States 
Weather Bureau, has prepared a valuable and 
interesting report on the cHmate of Alaska. "The 
climates of the coast and the interior," he says, 
"are unlike in many respects, and the differences 
are intensified in this, as perhaps in few other 
countries, by exceptional physical conditions. 
The natural contrast between land and sea is 
here tremendously increased by the current of 
warm water that impinges on the coast of British 
Columbia, one branch flowing northward toward 
Sitka, and thence westward to the Kadiak and 
Shumagin Islands. 

"The fringe of islands that separates the main- 
land from the Pacific Ocean from Dixon Sound 
northward and also a strip of the mainland for 
posF.ibly twenty miles back from the sea, follow- 
ing the sweep of the coast, as it curves to the 
northwestward to the western extremity of 
Alaska, form a distinct climate division, which 



CLIMATE OF ALASKA. 209 

may be termed temperate Alaska. The tempera- 
ture rarely falls to zero; winter does not set in 
until December i, and by the last of May the 
snow has disappeared except on the mountains. 
The mean winter temperature of Sitka is 32.5, 
but little less than that of Washington, D. C. 
While Sitka is fully exposed to the sea infltience, 
places further inland, but not over the coast 
range of mountains, as Killisnoo and Juneau, 
have also mild temperatures throughout the 
winter months. The temperature changes from 
m.onth to month in temperate Alaska are small, 
not exceeding twenty-five degrees from midwin- 
ter to rnidsummer. The average temperature 
of July, the warmest month of summer, rarely 
reaches 55 degrees, and the highest temperature 
of a single day seldom reaches 75 degrees. 

"The rainfall of Temperate Alaska is notori- 
ous the world over, not only as regards the 
quantity that falls, but also as to the manner of 
its falling, viz., in long and incessant rains and 
drizzles. Cloud and fog naturally abound, there 
being on an average but sixty-six clear days in 
the year. 

'Alaska is a land of striking contrasts, both 
in clim.atp. as well as topography. When the sun 
14 



210 KLONDIKE. 

shines the atmosphere is remarkably clear, the 
scenic effects are magnificent; all nature seems 
to be in holiday attire. But the scene may 
change very quickly; the sky becomes overcast; 
the winds increase in force; rain begins to fall; 
the evergreens sigh ominously, and utter deso- 
lation and loneliness prevail. 

"North of the Aleutian Islands the coast climate 
becomes more rigorous in winter, but in summer 
the difference is much less marked. Thus, at 
St. Michael, a short distance north of the mouth 
of the Yukon, the mean summer temperature is 
50 degrees, but four degrees cooler than Sitka. 
The mean summer temperature of Point Barrow, 
the most northerly point in the United States, 
is 36.8 degrees, but four-tenths of a degree less 
than the temperature of the air flowing across the 
summit of Pike's Peak, Col. 

"The rainfall of the coast region north of the 
Y-ukon delta is small, diminishing to less than ten 
inches within the arctic circle. 

"The climate of the interior, including in that 
designation practically all of the country except 
a narrow fringe of coastal margin and the terri- 
tory before referred to as temperate Alaska, is 
one of extreme rigor in winter, with a brief, but 



CLIMATE OF ALASKA. 211 

relatively hot, summer, especially when the sky 
is free from clouds. 

"In the Klondike region in midwinter the sun 
rises from 9.30 to 10 A. M., and sets from 2 to 3 
P. M., the total length of daylight being about 
four hcuirs. Remembering that the sun rises but 
a few degrees above the horizon, and that it is 
wholly obscured on a great many days, the 
character of the winter months may easily be 
imagined. 

"We are indebted to the United States Coast 
and Geodetic Survey for a series of six months' 
observations on the Yukon, not far from the site 
of the present gold discoveries. The observa- 
tions were made with standard instruments, and 
are wholly reHable. The mean temperature of 
the months October, 1889, to April, 1890, both 
inclusive, are as follows: October, 33 degrees; 
November, 8 degrees; December, 11 degrees be- 
low zero; January, 17 degrees below zero;, Feb- 
ruary, 15 degrees below zero; March 6 degrees 
above zero; April 20 degrees above. The daily 
mean temperature fell and remained below the 
freezing point (32), from November 4, 1889, to 
April 21, 1890, thus giving 168 days as the length 
of the closed season of 1889-90, assuming the 



212 KLONDIKE. 

outdoor operations are controlled by temperature 
only. 

The lowest temperature registered during the 
winter were: 32 degrees below zero in Novem- 
ber, 47 below in December, 59 below in January, 
55 below in February, 45 below in March, 26 be- 
low in April. 

"The greatest continuous cold occurred in 
February, 1890, when the daily mean for five 
consecutive days was 47 degrees below zero. 
The weather moderated slightly about the ist of 
March, but the temperature still remained be- 
low the freezing point. Generally cloudy weath- 
er prevailed, there being but three consecutive 
days in any month with clear weather during the 
whole winter. Snow fell on about one-third of 
the days in winter, and a less number in the early 
spring and late fall months. 

"Greater cold than that here noted has been 
experienced in the United States for a very short 
time, but never has it continued so very cold 
for so long a time. In the interior of Alaska 
the winter sets in as early as September, when 
snow storms may be expected in the mountains 
and passes. Headway during one of these 
storms is impossible, and the traveler who is 



CLIMATE OF ALASICA. 213 

overtaken by one of them is indeed fortunate 
if he escapes with his Hfe. Snow storms of great 
severity may occur in any month from Septem- 
ber to May, inclusive. 

"The changes of temperature from winter to 
summer are rapid, owing to the great increase 
in the length of the day. In May the sun rises 
at about 3 A. M. and sets about 9 P. M. In June 
it rises about 1.30 in the morning and sets at 
iO-30j giving about twenty ho4jrs of daylight and 
diffused twilight the remainder of the time. 

"The mean summer temperature of the inte- 
rior doubtless ranges between 60 and 70 degrees, 
according to elevation, being highest in the mid- 
dle and lower Yukon Valleys." 



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3 MY POINT OF VIEW. Selections from the works of 

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15 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, by the Rt. Rev. Ashton 

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16 THE THRONE OF GRACE. Before which the bur- 

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19 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, by the Rev. F. 

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ao THEM ESS AGE OF PEACE, by the Rev. Richard W. 
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31 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK, by the Rev. Charles 
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22 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, by the Rev. 

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23 THE CHANGED CROSS; AND OTHER RE- 

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5 THE CREATION STORY, by Honorable William E. 

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R. Scovil. 

11 DIFFICULTIES, by Hannah Whitall Smith. 

12 GAMBI.ERS AND GAMBLING, by Rev. Henry Ward 

Beecher. 

13 HAVE FAITH IN GOD, by Rev. Andrew Mun-ay. 

14 TV/ELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY, by Rev. Henry 

Ward Beecher. 

15 THE CHRIST IN WHOM CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, 

bv Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

16 IN MY NAME, > y Rev. Andrew Murray. 

17 SIX WARNINGS, by Rev. Henry \\'ard Beecher. 

i8 THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN, 

by i?.t. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 
ig POPULAR AMUSEMENTS, by Rev. Henry Ward 

Beecher. 

20 TRUE LIBERTY, bv Rt. Rev Phillips Brooks. 

21 INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, by Rev. Henry Ward 

F-eecher 

22 THE BEAUTY OF A LIFE OF SERVICE, by Rt. 

Rev. Phillip- Brooks. 

23 THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD, by Rev. A. 

T. Picrson, D D. 

24 THOUGHT AND ACTION, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

25 THE HEAVENLY VISION, by Rev. F. B. Meyer. 
25 MORNING STRENGTH, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. 

27 FOR THE QUIET HOUR, by Edith V. Bradt. 

28 EVENING COMFORT, by Elisabeth R. Scovil 

29 WORDS OF HELP FOR CHRISTIAN GIRLS, by 

Rev. F B. Meyer. 

30 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, by Rev. Dwight L. 

Moody 

31 EXPECTATION CORNER, by E. S. Elliot. 

32 JESSICA'S FIRST PRAYER, by Kesba Stratton. 



ALTEMUS' BELLES-LETTRES SERIES. 



collection of Essays and Addresses by eminent 
English and American Authors, beautifully 
printed and daintily bound, with 
original designs in silver. 



PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME. 



I INDEPENDENCE DAY, by Rev. Edward E. Hale. 

a THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS, by Hon. Richard Olney, 

3 THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS, by Edward W. Bok. 

4 THE YOUNG MAN AND THE CHURCH, by Edward 

W. BoW. 

5 THE SPOILS SYSTEM, by Hon. Carl Schurz. 

6 CONVERSATION, by Ihomas DeQuincey. 

7 SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, by Matthew Arnold. 

8 WORK, by John Ruskin. 

9 NATURE AND ART, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

10 THE USE AND MISUSE OF BOOKS, by Frederic 

Harrison. 

11 THE MONROE DOCTRINE: ITS ORIGIN, MEAN- 

ING AND APPLICATION, by Prof. John Bach 
McMaster (Univer.=;ity of Pennsylvania). 
la THE DESTINY OF MAN, by Sir John Lubbock. 

13 LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

14 RIP VAN WINKLE, by Washington Irving. 

15 ART, POETRY AND MUSIC, by Sir John Lubbock. 

16 THE CHOICE OF BOOKS, by Sir John Lubbock. 

17 MANNERS, by Raloh Waldo Emerson. 

18 CHARACTER, by Ralph Waldo Emer.son. 

19 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, by Wash- 

iii^'fon Irving. 

20 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE, by Sir John Lubbock. 

21 SELF RELIANCE, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

22 THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS, by Sir John Lubbock. 

23 SPIRITUAL LAWS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

24 OLD CHRISTMAS, by Washington Irving 

25 HEALTH. WEALTH AND THE BLESSING OF 

FRIENDS, by Sir John Lutibock. 

26 INTELLECT, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

27 WHY AMERICANS DISLIKE ENGLAND, by Prof. 

Geo B Adams (YaleK 

28 THE HIGHER EDUCATION AS A TRAINING FOR 

BUSINESS, by Prof. Harry Pratt Judson (University 
of Chicago^. 

29 MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION. 

30 LADDIE. 

31 J. COLE, by Emma Gellibrand. 



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I CRANFORD, by Mrs. Gaskell. 

a A WINDOW IN THRUMS, by J. M. Barrie. 



3 RAB AND HIS FRIENDS, MARJORIE FLEM- 

ING, ETC., by John Brown, M. D. 

4 THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD, by Oliver Goldsmith. 



5 THE IDLETHOUGHTS OF AN IDLE FELLOW. 

by Jerome K. Jerome. " A book for an idle holiday. 

6 TALES FROM SHAKSPEARE, by Charles and Mary 

Lamb, with an introduction by the Rev. Alfred Ainger, 
M. D. 

7 SESAME AND LILIES, by John Ruskin. 

Three Lectures — I. Of the King's Treasures. II. Of 
Queen's Garden. III. Of the Mystery of Life. 

8 THE ETHICSOF THE DUST,byTohn Ruskin. Ten 

lectures to little housewives on the elements ot crystali- 
zation. 

g THE PLEASURES OF LIFE, by Sir John Lubbock. 
Complete in one volume. 

10 THE SCARLET LETTER, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

11 THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, by 

Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

la MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE, by Nathaniel 
Hawthorne. 



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13 TWICE TOLD TALES, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

14 THE ESSAYS OF FRANCIS (LORD) BACON 

WITH MEMOIRS AND NOTES. 

15 ESSAYS, First Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

16 ESSAYS, Second Scries, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

17 REPRESENTATIVE MEN, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Mental portraits each representing a class. i. The 
Philosopher. 2. The Mystic. 3. The Skeptic. 4. The 
Poet. 5. The Man of the World. 6. The Writer. 

z8 THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS 
AURELIUS ANTONINUS, translated by George 
Long. 

19 THE DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS WITH THE 
ENCHIRIDION, translated by George Long. 

50 OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, by Thomas 

A^Kempis. Four books complete in one volume. 

51 ADDRESSES, by Professor Henry Drummond. The 

Greatest Thing in the World; Pax Vobiscum ; The 
Changed Life; How to Learn How; Dealing With 
Doubt; Preparation for I^earning; What is a Chris- 
tian ; The Study of the Bible ; A Talk on Books. 

32 LETTERS, SENTENCES AND MAXIMS, by IW 

Chesterfield. Masterpieces of good Uste, good writing 
and good sense. 

23 REVERIES OF A BACHELOR. A book of the 

heart. By Ik Marvel. 

24 DREAM LIFE, by Ik Marvel. A companion to " Reve- 

ries of a Bachelor." 

25 SARTOR RESARTUS, by Thomas Carlyle. 

26 HEROES AND HERO WORSHIP, by Thomas Car- 

lyle. 

27 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. 
aS ESSAYS OF ELIA, by Charles Lamb. 



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ag MY POINT OF VIEW. Representative selections from 
the works of Professor Henry Drummond by William 
Shepard. 

30 THE SKETCH BOOK, by Washington Irving. Com- 

plete. 

31 KEPT FOR THE MASTER'S USE, by Frances 

Ridley Ilavergal, 

3a LUCILE, by Owen Meredith. 

33 LALLA ROOKH, by Thomas Moore. 

34 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, by Sir Walter Scott. 

35 MARMION, by Sir Walter Scott. 

30 THE PRINCESS ; AND MAUD, by Alfred (Lord) 
Tennyson. 

37 CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE, by Lord 

liyron, 

38 IDYLLS OF THE KING, by Alfred (Lord) Tennyson. 

39 EVANGELINE, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 

40 VOICES OF THE NIGHT AND OTHER POEMS, 

by Henry Wadsworth Lxjngfellow. 

41 THE QUEEN OF THE AIR, by John Ruskin. A 

study of the Greek myths of cloud and storm. 

43 THE BELFRY OF BRUGES AND OTHER 
POEMS, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 

43 POEMS, Volume T, by John Greenleaf Whittier. 

44 POEMS, Volume II, by John Greenleaf Whittier. 



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45 THE RAVEN; AND OTHER POEMS, by Edgar 
Allan Poe. 

45 THANATOPSIS;AND OTHER POEMS, by William 
CuUen Bryant. 

47 THE LAST LEAF;AND OTHER POEMS, by Oliver 

Wendell Holmes. 

48 THE HEROES OR GREEK FAIRY TALES, by 

Charles Kingsley. 

49 A "WONDER BOOK, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 



50 UNDINE, by de La Motte Fouque. 

51 ADDRESSES, by the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

52 BALZAC'S SHORTER STORIES, by Honore de 

Balzac. 

53 TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, by Richard 

H. Dana, Jr. 

54 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. An Autobiography. 

55 THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA, by Charles Lamb. 

56 TOM BROV/N'S SCHOOL DAYS, by Thomas 

Hughes. 

57 WEIRD TALES, by Edgar Allan Poe. 

53 THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE, by John Ruskin. 
Three lectures on Work, Traffic and War. 

59 NATURAL LAW IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, 

by Professor Henry Drummond. 

60 ABBE CONSTANTIN, by Ludovic Halevy. 

61 MANON LESCAUT, by Abbe Prevost. 



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Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series — 
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62 THE ROMANCE OF A POOR YOUNG MAN, by 

Octave Feuillet. 

63 BLACK BEAUTY, by Anna Sewell. 

64 CAMILLE, by Alexander Dumas, Jr. 

65 THE LIGHT OF ASIA, by Sir Edwin Arnold. 

66 THE LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, by Thomas 

Babington Macaulay. 

67 THE CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM- 

EATER, by Thomas De Quincey. 

68 TREASURE ISLAND, by Robert L. Stevenson. 

69 CARMEN, by Prosper Merimee. 

70 A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, by Laurence Sterne. 

71 THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE, by Nathaniel 

Hawthorne. 

72 BAB BALLADS, AND SAVOY SONGS, by W. H. 

Gilbert. 

73 FANCHON, THE CRICKET, by George Sand. 

74 POEMS, by James Russell Lowell. 

75 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK, by the Rev. Charles 

H. Spurgeon. 

76 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, by the Rev. 

Charles H. Spurgeon. 

77 THE MANLINESS OF CHRIST, by Thomas 

Hughes. 

78 ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN, by the Rev. Henry 

Ward Beecher. 

79 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST 

TABLE, by Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



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80 MULVANEY STORIES, by Rudyard Kipling. 

81 BALLADS, by Rudyard Kipling. 

82 MORNING THOUGHTS, by Frances Ridley Havergal. 

83 TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM, by T. S. Arthur. 

84 EVENING THOUGHTS, by Frances Ridley Havergal. 

85 IN MEMORIAM, by Alfred (Lord) Tennyson. 

85 COMING TO CHRIST, by Frances Ridley Havergal. 

87 HOUSE OF THE WOLF, by Stanley Weyman. 



AMERICAN POLITICS (non-Partisan), by Hon. Thomas 
V. Cooper. A history of all the Political Parties with their 
views and records on all important questions. All political 
platforms from the beginning to date. Great Speeches on 
Great issues. Parliamentary Practice and tabulated history 
of chronological events. A library without this work is de- 
ficient. 8vo., 750 pages. Cloth, ^3.00. Full Sheep Library 
style, ^4. CO. 

NAMES FOR CHILDREN, by Elisabeth Robinson Scovil, 
author of " The Care of Children," " Preparation for 
Motherhood." In family life there is no question of greater 
weight or importance than naming the baby. The author 
gives much good advice and many suggestions on the sub- 
ject. Cloth, i2mo., ;^ .40. 

TRIE AND TRIXY,byJohn Habberton, author of "Helen's 
Babies." The story is replete with vivid and spirited 
scenes; and is incomparably the happiest and most de- 
lightful work Mr. Habberton has yet written. Cloth, 
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